Huskers Open N.I.S.T. With Pair Of Wins

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- The No. 25 Nebraska softball team opened the National Invitational Softball Tournament with a pair of wins Friday against unranked teams and moved its season record back to .500. The Huskers claimed an 8-2 win over Kent State and a 4-0 victory over Utah State to open pool play of the N.I.S.T. Nebraska will play California late Friday. The pair of wins moves the Huskers to 9-9 on the year.

Nebraska took the early lead in game one and never looked back. Jennifer Lizama slugged a three-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the second to put the Huskers up 3-0. The homer was the fifth of the year for Lizama and 39th of her career, which ties her for second on the NCAA career homer chart among active players. Scoring on the play was freshman Amanda Buchholz who joined the team Friday after competing for the Husker women's basketball team in the Big 12 Tournament on Thursday night. Buchholz started at third for the Huskers and collected a single to left field in her first collegiate at bat. The Golden Flash answered with a pair of runs in the top of the third on an RBI single and RBI double. Freshman Kim Ogee put the Huskers up by two with an RBI single in the fourth, scoring Jenny Voss from third. The Huskers put the game out of reach in the bottom of the fourth by adding four runs on one hit and three errors. Lizama hit an infield single to score Voss for the first run of the inning and her fourth RBI of the game. Buchholz, Lizama and Leigh Suhr also scored in the inning to make it an 8-2 game. Voss would shut down the Flash in the seventh and improve to 2-4 on the season with the four-hit effort. Lizama finished the game 2-for-4 with four runs batted in. Ogee also went 2-for-4 and Buchholz went 1-for-2 in her first action as a Husker.

A pitching battle ensued in the second contest of the day as Nebraska and Utah State were each held to just two hits. Lizama led off the game with one of the two hits, on a single to left field. After stealing second and advancing to third on an Ogee groundout, Lizama came home on a wild pitch from Utah State pitcher Kristin Hommel to make it 1-0 Huskers. Meanwhile, Leigh Ann Walker, who took the hill for Nebraska, took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, but had it snapped when Aimee Johnson singled to center field.

Walker struck out the next two sending the game into the sixth. In the sixth inning Nebraska added three more runs. Lizama scored on a wild pitch after walking and stealing second. Three batters later, Jamie Fuente hit her third home run of the year, scoring Jill Baker as well, to make it 4-0 Huskers. Walker finished the game with 14 strikeouts and just three walks to improve to 4-2 on the year.

The Huskers will play California late Friday and will begin tournament play on Saturday morning.