Simokaitis? Homer Lifts Huskers to 4-1 Win

Lincoln ? Joe Simokaitis’ three-run homer in the seventh broke a 1-1 deadlock, as No. 19 Nebraska took the opening game of the series with a 4-1 win over No. 10 Texas A&M in front of 4,748 at Hawks Field Friday evening.

With two outs and runners on first and second, the junior shortstop from St. Louis sent Jason Meyer’s 3-1 pitch into the berm in left for his second career homer and first since April 27, 2003, giving the Huskers the lead for good. It was the second game-winning hit this week for Simokaitis, whose two-run, ninth-inning single gave NU a 4-3 win over Northern Colorado on Tuesday.

Not only was it Simokaitis’ second career homer in 524 at bats, but also the first round tripper surrendered by Meyer in 70.2 innings this season. Meyer (8-1) had allowed just nine earned runs in his first 17 appearances, including five starts, but allowed four runs on seven hits in suffering his first loss of the season.

"He threw me back-to-back changeups in the third, and I rolled over on it," Simokaitis said. "He did it again, and I put a good swing on it and got a home run. It didn't feel too good (when it left the bat), but it got out and was a big lift for us."

While Simokaitis’ unexpected power surge propelled Nebraska to its 30th win of the season, the Huskers (30-12, 9-7 Big 12) relied on a dominant complete-game effort from sophomore Zach Kroenke. The left-hander from Omaha allowed just three hits and fanned four to improve to 7-1 on the season. It was Kroenke’s second complete game of the season and third of his career.

"Zach and Joe were big for us," Nebraska Coach Mike Anderson said. "Zach set the tone, putting up zeros after the fifth. Joe's big hit doesn't happen for us if Zach doesn't get things done on the mound and put us in that situation. We were facing one of the best pitchers in the conference, and we had to do everything we could. We were very fortunate to have that happen. It was an extremely solid, very impressive outing."

The Huskers, who have won 15 straight against top-10 teams in Lincoln, struck in the second off the Aggie ace, using consecutive hits by Jake Mullinax and John Grose to put runners on first and third before Jesse Boyer’s grounder to second scored NU’s first run. Meyer then settled down, retiring 12 straight as NU didn’t have a runner in scoring position until the seventh.

Texas A&M (33-14, 9-9 Big 12) got the equalizer in the fifth, as consecutive one-out hits by Cory Patton and John Infante put runners on a second and third before Andrew Baldwin’s sacrifice fly tied the score at one.

Meyer retired the first two Huskers in the seventh before Boyer singled and Tyler Vaughn coaxed a walk, setting the stage for Simokaitis’ game-winning homer.

The two teams continue the series Saturday afternoon at 2:05 p.m. as junior right-hander Phil Shirek (5-0, 3.02 ERA) takes on Aggie left-hander Zach Jackson (8-3, 3.61 ERA). The game will be shown state-wide on NETV and tape-delayed on College Sports Television for Sunday airing.

Box score (NCAA) Nebraska Baseball #10 Texas A&M at #19 Nebraska Apr 30, 2004 at Lincoln, Neb. (Hawks Field)

Texas A&M 1 (33-14,9-9 BIG 12)

Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg. ------------------------------------------------------------ Pennington, Cliff ss..... 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 .342 Mavroulis, Coby 1b....... 4 0 0 0 0 1 10 1 0 .333 Boggs, Austin 3b......... 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 .346 Stinson, Craig c......... 4 0 0 0 0 1 9 2 0 .299 Patton, Cory rf.......... 2 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 .305 Infante, John cf......... 3 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 .275 Baldwin, Andrew dh....... 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 2 .295 Bartek, Travis lf........ 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 .232 Alexander, Matt 2b....... 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 .133 Meyer, Jason p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 - Nicholson, Kyle p....... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 - Totals................... 29 1 3 1 1 4 24 11 3

Nebraska 4 (30-12,9-7 BIG 12)

Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB Avg. ------------------------------------------------------------ Shockey, Colin cf........ 2 0 1 0 2 0 4 0 0 .326 Bruce, Daniel rf......... 3 0 1 0 0 0 5 0 0 .252 Gordon, Alex 3b.......... 3 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 .390 Ledbetter, Curtis 1b..... 3 0 0 0 0 2 7 0 2 .316 Mullinax, Jake 2b........ 4 1 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 .359 Grose, John c............ 3 0 1 0 1 2 6 0 0 .195 Boyer, Jesse lf.......... 4 1 1 1 0 1 2 0 3 .306 Vaughn, Tyler dh......... 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 .214 Simokaitis, Joe ss....... 3 1 1 3 0 1 2 4 1 .303 Kroenke, Zach p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Totals................... 27 4 7 4 5 9 27 5 6

Score by Innings R H E ------------------------------------------- Texas A&M........... 000 010 000 - 1 3 0 Nebraska............ 010 000 30X - 4 7 0 -------------------------------------------

LOB - TA 3; Huskers 6. 2B - Boggs(7); Infante(8); Mullinax, J.(11). HR - Simokaitis,(1). SH - Bruce, D.(11); Ledbetter, C(1). SF - Baldwin(4). CS - Shockey, C. 2(7).

Texas A&M IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP ERA -------------------------------------------------------- Meyer, Jason........ 7.0 7 4 4 4 8 25 30 131 1.65 Nicholson, Kyle..... 1.0 0 0 0 1 1 2 4 14 5.59

Nebraska IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP ERA -------------------------------------------------------- Kroenke, Zach....... 9.0 3 1 1 1 4 29 31 108 2.37

Win - Kroenke, Z. (7-1). Loss - Meyer (8-1). Save - None. Inherited runners/scored: Nicholson 2/0. Pitches/strikes: Meyer 131/75; Nicholson 14/7; Kroenke, Z. 108/67. Umpires - HP: Randy Bruns 1B: Patrick Spieler 3B: Chris Coskey Start: 6:35p.m. Time: 2:15 Attendance: 4748 Meyer faced 2 batters in the 8th. Game: NU42