Huskers Baseball Team Starts Preseason Training

Lincoln -- The University of Nebraska baseball team will begin its pursuit of the 2000 Big 12 baseball championship, Saturday, Jan. 15, as the Huskers begin preseason training. Nebraska opens the season with a 34-man roster. The team will practice from 12:30 to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Noon to 3:30 on Sunday.

Head Coach Dave Van Horn, who enters his third season with the Huskers, said he is excited to return to action.

"This is one of the smallest opening-day rosters that I've ever had," Van Horn said. "It's actually kind of nice. We're excited to get back to work. Last year was a fun season, but that's behind us. We've set higher goals for this season."

The Huskers are relatively healthy entering the season. Projected starting third baseman senior Brandt Vlieger (Omaha, Neb.) is still recovering from a broken ankle suffered during the fall season. But Van Horn says Vlieger is already doing some light running and will is hopeful he'll be ready for NU's season-opener against Arkansas State on Feb. 11 at the Rice Tournament in Houston. Sophomore John Cole is also returning to full speed after suffering a serious groin pull during the offseason.

"We'll make sure that the guys are in shape and that they followed our workout program," Van Horn said. "Hopefully we'll be able to bypass some of the conditioning and work on fundamentals like defensive strategies, signals and baserunning. We'll also try to simulate some live games and get out on the field whenever possible. We have three weeks to work on every phase of the game and improve."

Nebraska returns 17 letterwinners from last year's team that finished 42-18, including a 16-9 Big 12 mark. Nebraska won the Big 12 Tournament, marking the school's first conference title since 1950 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1985. The Huskers, who sported a Big 12-best .339 batting average a year ago, will have to replace First-Team All-American Ken Harvey who signed with the Kansas City Royals following the 1999 season after being drafted in the fifth round.

In other Nebraska News:
The Kansas City Royals will visit Lincoln on Wednesday, Jan. 19 as part of their annual Winter Caravan. Several Royals players, alumni, Slugger (team mascot) and Royals radio announcers will be traveling with the Caravan. Confirmed participants for the trip include Jermaine Dye, Joe Randa, Jay Witasick, Scott Pose and Al Fitzmorris. The members of the tour will be available for autographs at 6 p.m. on Jan. 19 prior to the Nebraska-Texas Tech men's basketball game in the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The team will be available to the media for interviews at 5:45 and during the autograph session.