Marsden, Kroenke Share Big 12 Honor

Lincoln - A pair of Nebraska baseball players were honored by the Big 12 Office Tuesday, as Aaron Marsden (Grand Forks, N.D.) and Zach Kroenke (Omaha, Neb.) were selected as the Big 12 co-Pitchers of the Week.

Marsden raised his record to 5-0 on the season with a complete-game four-hitter against Oklahoma last Friday.He took a shutout into the ninth while tossing his second straight complete game in the 5-1 Husker win. Marsden also tied his career best with 10 strikeouts and walked only one as he struck out eight or more hitters for the fourth time in 2003. In his last five starts, he is 5-0 with a 1.52 ERA, fanning 41 in 41.1 innings.

Kroenke picked up his first two wins during the week while going 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA in 11.1 innings. The Omaha Northwest product allowed seven hits, all singles, and held opponents to a .170 batting average. His first 11-plus innings were without an earned run, and he started the week with six innings of four-hit, four-strikeout work in a 6-0 blanking of Cal Poly, as the Mustangs were shut out for the first time in over two seasons. On Sunday, Kroenke, who was making his first conference start, hurled 5.2 innings of three-hit ball, as Nebraska took first place in the Big 12 with a 5-2 win over Oklahoma.

The Huskers, who 19-6 on the season and ranked as high as 11th in this week's national polls, begins a two-game set agaist Western Illinois Tuesday evening at Hawks Field with the first pitch set for 6:35 p.m.