Sports
Short-staffed NU to take on Texas
Komine, Hale to sit out with injuries; pitchers up for ‘biggest test this season*
By David Wilson
Staff writer
With two of its top starting pitchers
out with injuries, the Nebraska baseball
team will face its biggest challenge of
the season this weekend a little short
handed on the mound.
For the first time since 1988, two
ranked teams will square off at Buck
Beltzer Field today, when the 30th
ranked Comhuskers (17-6 overall and
5-1 in the Big 12 Conference) play host
to No. 9 Texas (22-8 and 8-1) at 7 p.m.
With the exception of junior lefty
Scott Fries (4-1), who will get one start
ing nod for NU this weekend, the
Huskers will pitch by committee, Coach
Dave Van Horn said
Both freshmen righties, Shane
Komine and Steve Hale, who have com
bined to start 14 games for NU - win
ning eight - will likely sit out with
injuries suffered last weekend at
Kansas.
Texas will arrive in Lincoln after
winning 11 of its last 13 contests,
including a 5-1 win over Houston on
Wednesday. The Longhorns currently
sit atop the Big 12- VA games ahead of
the Huskers.
Scott McClurg/DN
KEN HARVEY AND JENNIFER UZAMA are the leading hitters for the Nebraska
baseball and softball teams, respectively. Both are juniors for the
Cornhuskers.
Harvey acknowledges fame,
says team keeps him humble
By David Wilson
Staff writer
With a smile spread across his face,
Nebraska junior outfielder Jamal Strong
has no problem calling his 6-foot-2,250
pound teammate, Ken Harvey, a camera
hog.
In similar fashion, junior outfielder
Adam Shabala has noticed a relationship
between Harvey and print journalists.
“Every time you look in a paper, you
see his face,” Shabala said. “It’s all about
Ken Harvey.”
So the two have taken it upon them
selves to keep the Comhuskers’ leading
average and home run hitter from getting
a big head.
“We always mess around with him
and call him ‘Franchise,’” Strong said.
But don’t get the wrong impression.
Though Harvey has the size and num
bers to back up whatever kind of smack
he wants to talk, the seemingly calm and
quiet first baseman doesn’t come across
as cocky.
And if anything, the addition of
Please see HARVEY on 11
R.D. Spiehs, a right-handed fresh
man pitcher, said the Husker pitching
staff - shorthanded or not - would be up
for its biggest test this season.
“They’ll probably be the best hitting
team we’ve faced this year, but
(Pitching) Coach (Rob) Childress has
us prepared well,” Spiehs said. “We’ll
be ready to go.
“The injury situation just makes
everyone aware that they have a possi
bility to get a shot. Everyone is going to
be ready to go. I know a lot of guys don’t
have very many innings. They’re going
to be anxious to throw.”
Of course, with only two other
u
They ’ll probably be the best hitting team
we’ve faced this year...”
R J). Spiehs
NU pitcher
pitchers on the roster with more than
one game started this season - senior
Jay Sirianni and junior Chad Wiles -
Van Horn may not have much choice.
“I just hope some of our pitchers
that haven’t thrown much can come in
and do a good job for us,” Van Horn
said
Offensively, on the other hand, the
Huskers have averaged over 16 runs per
Please see TEXAS on 11
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Lizama plays hardball for NU softball
By Jake Bleed
Staffwriter
Whoever put the “soft” in softball
never met Jennifer Lizama.
“There’s never a day when I feel
good; when I wake up and say ‘Wow
there’s nothing sore today,”’ the NU
junior second baseman said. “Pain’s
just part of it.”
For all the pain, sweat and intensity,
Lizama has thrived in the hardball
world of collegiate softball.
“She’s a tough player,” NU Coach
Rhonda Revelle said. Revelle added
that Lizama’s toughness as a player
could be seen in the intensity NU’s sec
ond baseman brought to a game.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself
because I’ve got a job to do,” Lizama
said. “That’s what I was recruited for,
that’s what I came here for to do a job.”
Lizama’s been at work for years.
Her father, a former state champion
basketball player, had her playing soft
ball when she was five, and even went
so far as to build a batting cage in the
backyard of their California home.
“I had to pitch 200 pitches a day
when I was nine years old,” Lizama
said.
One reason for all the work,
Lizama said, was so she could go to
school. Lizama said she was the first
person from her family to go to college.
“The main thing I want to do is
make them happy by graduating,”
Lizama said. “They don’t want me to
struggle like they did.”
She came to NU from San
Lorenzo, Calif. Revelle, who pitched
for NU in the early ’80s, coached at
San Jose State before returning to NU,
and said she first heard of Lizama
when the second baseman was in
eighth grade.
By the time she reached Bishop
O’Dowd High School, Lizama was
being named a Fastpitch World All
American. Before she graduated,
“Zama” broke the California high
school record for home runs, a record
she still holds.
In her first year at NU, Lizama
become the second freshman ever to be
named second-team All American. She
was also named Big-12 freshman of
the year, led the team in a slew of statis
tics and got a concussion sliding into
home plate against Iowa.
Her success continued through her
sophomore year and into Tuesday’s
match against Creighton.
“She hit a home run (last night) that
probably still hasn’t landed,” Ravelle
said The hit, estimated at 340 feet and
one of the longest in Husker history,
helped No. 24 NU to a 6-5 victory.
Lizama currently leads the team
with a .667 slugging percentage, 18
walks drawn, 26 hits, 27 runs scored
u
Almost every time I
get on base in the
first inning; we
score
Jennifer Lizama
NU second baseman
and 44 total bases, among otters.
“I just want to get on base when I
can,” Lizama said. “But if a home run
comes, a home run comes.”
Home ran pitches are, even for
Lizama, few and far between. But, for
tunately forthe Huskers, other forms of
offense are a little more reliable.
For all of Lizama’s skills at the
plate, NU’s lead hitter leads the team in
stolen bases (14) and on-base percent
age (5.29).
“Almost every time I get on base in
the first inning, we score,” Lizama said.
Nebraska will need all the scoring
it can get when the team travels to
Texas this weekend to begin the
defense of their Big-12 title.
“After last year, we should get to
the World Series every year,” Lizama
said. “I’d like to have some more ban
ners up there.”