«*?jr
shed some Okie blood
■Tensions arose after last
year’s OSU home defeat in
two of three games.
By Dane Stickney
Senior editor
When it comes to Big 12 baseball,
there’s bad blood between Nebraska
and Oklahoma State.
n; f Friday,, tho Comhuskers (6-3) wil 1
open up their Big 12 play against the
Cowboys (7-6) in.Stillwater, Okla.
fii NU Coach Dave Van Horn said
there’s no problem getting motivated
to play OSU
“We don’t get along too well,”
Van Horn said. “We beat them two
out of three; at home last year when
they were on a roll, and we knocked
them out of die Big 12 Tournament,
so we know they’ll be fired-up to see
us.”
Said senior outfielder Adam
Shabala: “We get after all Big 12
teams, but Oklahoma State gets us
more fired up. They’re always one of
the best teams in the country, and
(they) let you know it.”
However, OSU may not be as
strong this year as it has been in the
recent past, Van Horn said. The
Cowboys are coming off a 14-9 loss
to Division II foe Missouri Southern.
The loss was OSU’s first in their
1 home-opener
I since 1984.
| > “They’re not
| as offensive as
1 they have been,”
| Van Horn said.
| “They’ve lost a
lot of quality hit
ters, but they’re
still a good team,
Van Horn
ana we 11 nave to
play well to beat
them.” • < •
Even outside the rivalry, this
weekend is important for the
Muskers, Van Horn said:
“We’d really like to start confer
ence play by winning a couple
games,” he said. “But there are 30
conference games, so the first week
end doesn’t make or break you.
“If we get off to a good start on
Friday, We could use that momentum
to sweep the Series,” he said.
The task of getting the Huskers
off to a good start falls on freshman
pitcher Jamie Rodrigue, who will
start on Friday. Rodrigue, 1 -1 with a
2.45 ERA, will pitch against OSU’s
ace, lefty Mark Smith.
Smi^h, a preseason All American,
is 2-1 with a 3.68 ERA this year.
“He’s a tough one to beat,” Van
Horn said. “But we like the way
Rodrigue matches up with him, and
hopefully we can knock (Smith) out
by the sixth or seventh.”
Saturday, Shane Komine, 2-0
with a 2.25 ERA, will take the hijl,
fresh off a complete-game victory
over Texas-San Antonio.
Chad Wiles, 2-0 with a 2,21 ERA,
will pitch on Sunday.
The pitching stalf has been noth
ing short of stellar, Shabala said. The
team’s combined 2.62 ERA is less
than half of last year’s 5.55 ERA.
' “The pitchers have been carrying
us,” Shabala said. “The offense really
needs to come out and play well this
weekend, because we’re ready to get
our half going.”
Van Horn said he expects his
pitchers to keep throwing well, but he
hopes his offense will gain some con
sistency.
The team has a combined .281
batting average, which Van Horn
called mediocre. The Huskers have
been aggressive on the base paths,
stealing 23 bases in nine games.
“The pitching has been outstand
ing, and the defense has been pretty
good,” he said. “But the hitting has
been up and down.”
— SOFTBALL*—
Husk'er softball
faces top teams
■ The Lead Off Classic
in Columbus, Ga. includes
15 top-25 teams.
By Sean Callahan
Staff Writer < ■
The Nebraska softball team has
never backed away from playing a
tough non-conference schedule.
When the 23rd-ranked
Cornhuskers open play today in the
Lead Off Classic in Columbus, Ga.,
they will be competing in a field that
includes 15 top-25 teams.
The Huskers will open pool play
against lS^-ranked Louisiapa
Lafayette, then finish the day against
No. 24 Hofstra.
On Saturday NU faces No. 39 Cal.
State-Northridge before being placed
into a tournament based on its record in
pool play.
The top team from each of the six
pools, along with two wild-card teams,
will be placed into the gold bracket.
The remaining teams in the tournament
will be placed into silver and bronze
brackets based on their overall records.
“Our pool play is against all top-40
teams,” Nebraska Coach Rhonda
Revelle said. “We’re used to that. Four
of our 11 games this season have been
against top-10 opponents. So as far as
our schedule, it’s just business as
usual.”
. After starting the season out 1 -5 in
the Fiesta Bowl Tournament in
Phoenix, the Huskers have bounced
back to win four out of their last five
games.
In the UNLV Classic, NU dominat
ed its opponents by outscoring them
26-5.
Senior All-American Jennifer
Lizama said Nebraska must continue to
play at a high level.
“I thought we ended last tourna
ment on a really good note,” Lizama
said. “We need to keep on the road
we’ve been on and'continue to stay
mentally focused.”
In the span of victories, the 5-6
Huskers knocked off current No. 10
Oregon State 2-1.
Before the OSU game, Nebraska
was 0-4 against teams ranked in the top
25.
Lizama called the win over the top
10 Beavers NU’s best victory of the
young season.
“The fight was there,” Lizama said.
“We kept fighting, and that is what
we’r6 going to need. Once we get to
conference and postseason those are
the type of games we are going to
have.”
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dailyneb.com
March 6,2000
4:00 pm
Nebraska Union
Hardubura is out for the year
HARDABURA f. rom page 16
and floor exercise champion said the
surgery will involve repairing a ten
don in his bicep and cartilage in his
shoulder. Doctors told him he will be
out three to six months.
Hardabura opened the season by
competing in just two events - the
pommel horse and still rings - at the
Rocky Mountain Open Jan. 21. He
then missed the next two meets
because of back trouble.
When he tried to mount a come
back in NU’s Feb. 19 dual at
California-Santa Barbara,
Hardabura strained the injuries even
more after competing on the pommel
horse, vault and high bar. After the
meet, Hardabura and his coaches
agreed they had tried to thrust him
back into the line-up too fast.
The 24-year-old Oakville,
Ontario, native went on a much more
deliberate training program with
Assistant Coach Jim Howard and
had hoped to make a late-season
recovery.
Such a recovery would hopefully
have helped the injury-plagued
Huskers back to the form that
brought them the NCAA’s third place
trophy last season without Nelson,
who missed all of 1999 with a torn
anterior cruciate ligament. Nelson
tore the same ACL at Oklahoma on
Feb. 4, ending his career.
Hardabura said his season-end
ing injury is tough to swallow con
sidering Nelson’s injury and a slew
of others that NU’s top gymnasts
have suffered this year.
The injuries have forced Allen to
use four out of six gymnasts on three
of the events in each of the last two
meets. This has forced the Huskers to
count scores of inexperienced fresh
men and sophomores.
The product of this has been the
two worst scores in school history
since the NCAA moved to its current
format in 1995 in blowout losses to
Iowa and Oklahoma last week.
“We weren’t exactly in the great
est position in the first place, with
these record lows,” Hardabura said.
“The ship was sinking. I just wish l
cotiki ek> somethings anything -to
help. I feel like I’ve let down some of
the greatest leaders this gym has
seen.”
Fortunately, NU does have some
thing to cheer about. Senior Derek
Leiter, who started the season with a
slight hand injury of his own, is
ranked No. 1 in the nation in the all
around and also on the vault.
In his six meets this season,
Leiter has won the all-around four
times and broken the 57-point barri
er five times. With his fellow All
Americans out, the former Lincoln
Southeast standout realizes the load
he will have to carry for NU.
“(The injuries) may have
switched my role in here,” Leiter
said. “We’ve lost our national cham
pions. I feel like when I step out there
now, I want to have the guys confi
dent in me. There is still some pride
here, still stuff we need to do.”
Big 12 tournament creates competition
WRESTLERS f rom page 16
in the nation and possibly in recent
memory.
The talent level should be around
for a while, Neumann said.
“It’s exciting to have that
wrestling going on in Lincoln,”
Neumann said. “But it’s also exciting
because they are all fairly young.”
Vering’s weight class seems to be
the most loaded of the 10, including
top-ranked Vering.
Other 197-pounders in action
... Sunday will be No. 2 Mark Munoz
from Oklahoma State, Iowa State’s
third-ranked Zach Thompson and
No. 5 Orville Palmer from
Oklahoma.
Vering, who is 34-2, only has lost
to Munoz this year, and he said he
expects a dogfight.
“Whoever wins that tournament
isn’t necessarily going to be the win
ner at nationals,” Vering said. “There
are so many factors, but this is a good
place to get a good seed at nationals.”
” With all those teams ranked so high,
it s definitely one of the tougher Big 12
tourneys I’ve seen.”
Brad Vering
NU wrestler
Byran Snyder is a definite
favorite in the 157-pound division
with his 34-1 season and his 18-0
dual record, which is only the third
perfect dual record in NU history.
Snyder’s closest competition this
weekend is Oklahoma’s No. 6 David
Kjeldgaard, who Snyder has beaten
twice'already.
To qualify for the National
Tournament in St. Louis, as team
captains Vering and Snyder seem
likely to do, a top-three finish is
needed to gain an automatic bid. The
five Big 12 coaches then collaborate
to determine the six remaining wild
card spots.
To qualify eight Husker
wrestlers, Neumann said, would be
fabulous, but it would require some
upsets at certain weight classes, but
nothing that’s out of NU’s reach,
Neumann said.
Other wrestlers, besides the con
sistently dominant Vering and
Snyder, will have to be at their peak,
Neumann said.
“I think they will be at their best,”
Neumann said. “I feel the best about
the team as I have all year. They’ve
practiced well and have been work
ing hard on their match strategies,
and I think they’re believing in them
selves.”