Huskers Roll Tide, 5-1

Lincoln ? Behind a complete-game performance from All-American Johnny Dorn, the sixth-ranked Nebraska baseball team continued to roll, taking down No. 25 Alabama, 5-1, in front of a crowd of 5,311 at Hawks Field Saturday.

Dorn improved to 3-1 on the season with his second career complete game, as he fanned a season-high eight in a 107-pitch gem. The sophomore retired 12 in a row at one point and allowed one unearned run, as he improved to 3-0 with a 1.35 ERA in his last three starts.

“He had a great game today,” Anderson said. “The first couple of outings, he had not thrown much since last season. Today, he was commanding and wanted the ball late. He kept getting stronger as the game went went on.”

With the win, NU’s 13th straight at home dating back to last season, the Huskers improved to 10-2 on the year and have a chance for the series sweep in Sunday’s 12:05 p.m. finale against the Crimson Tide (13-5). The start time was moved up one hour to accommodate Alabama’s travel schedule.

Dorn, who pitched his way out of several early jams before cruising down the stretch, continued a series of impressive pitching gems, as Nebraska has allowed one run in each of its last five games, posting a staff ERA of 0.77 in that stretch.

While Dorn silenced the Alabama bats, Nebraska got production from center fielder Bryce Nimmo, who went 2-for-3 with a homer and two RBIs, including a sixth-inning homer that broke a 1-all tie, and Andrew Brown, who delivered a key two-run single, as the Huskers scored three runs in the sixth and added an insurance run late. Luke Gorsett also continued his early-season tear with two hits, including his seventh homer of the year, and scored twice, as Nebraska won its sixth straight game.

Alabama had several early opportunities against the Husker right-hander, as putting the leadoff hitter in scoring position in each of the first three innings, while Nebraska committed a pair of errors. Dorn found way to get NU out of trouble, as Alabama, which went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position, could not capitalize on the Husker miscues.

“I would like to be able to say we are playing well, but I didn’t think we played well the first three innings,” Anderson said. “I think we pitched extremely well, and Johnny pitched us out of a couple of jams.”

The game developed into a pitcher’s duel between Dorn and Alabama’s Bernard Robert until Gorsett’s fourth-inning homer gave NU a 1-0 lead, as Gorsett hit Robert’s pitch off the foul pole in right.

Alabama came right back in the fifth, taking advantage of Nebraska’s third error of the afternoon to tie the game. Greg Paiml singled to center to open the inning and stole second, but Jeff Christy’s throw went into center, allowing Paiml to reach third. Two batters later Matt Downs’ grounder to short plated the runner from third.

Nebraska finally got to Robert in the sixth, scoring three times to take a 4-1 lead, as the Crimson Tide starter allowed three runs on six hits in five-plus innings of work to dip to 2-1 on the season. Nimmo gave the Huskers the lead for good, sending a 1-2 pitch into the bullpen in right for his first homer of the season. Ryan Wehrle coaxed a walk to chase Robert before Gorsett’s infield single off of Josh Copeland put runners on first and second. After a sacrifice bunt by Brandon Buckman, Brown then delivered the key blow, sending a 2-2 pitch into center for a two-run single, pushing the Husker lead to 4-1.

The Huskers added a final run in the seventh, as redshirt freshman Nick Sullivan opened the seventh with a double before eventually scoring on Nimmo’s suicide squeeze.

Dorn did not allow a hit after Paiml’s fifth inning single until Alabama opened the ninth with a two straight hits. The right-hander then buckled down, striking out the next three hitters to cap his first complete-game effort of the season.

The series concludes Sunday afternoon at 12:05 p.m., as redshirt freshman Charlie Shirek makes his second career start. The game will be carried on Pinnacle Sports Network stations and on Huskers.com.

                            #25 Alabama at #6 Nebraska
                   Mar 11, 2006 at Lincoln, NE (Hawks Field)Alabama 1 (13-5)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB  Avg.
Emeel Salem cf...........  4  0  1  0   0  1  2  1   0  .292
Matt Downs 3b............  4  0  0  1   0  0  0  3   0  .231
Kody Valverde c..........  4  0  0  0   0  0  5  2   0  .323
Ryan Rhoden rf...........  4  0  1  0   0  0  0  0   2  .234
Alex Avila dh............  3  0  1  0   1  2  0  0   0  .239
Evan Bush 2b.............  4  0  0  0   0  2  2  3   0  .221
Spencer Pennington 1b....  2  0  0  0   1  1  8  2   0  .270
Brandon Belcher lf.......  4  0  0  0   0  2  0  0   3  .206
Greg Paiml ss............  3  1  1  0   0  0  5  3   2  .262
Bernard Robert p.........  0  0  0  0   0  0  2  0   0     -
 Josh Copeland p.........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0     -
 Patrick Kelly p.........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0     -
Totals................... 32  1  4  1   2  8 24 14   7Nebraska 5 (10-2)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB  Avg.
Nimmo, Bryce cf..........  3  1  2  2   0  0  1  0   0  .375
Wehrle, Ryan ss..........  3  1  0  0   1  1  0  3   0  .378
Gorsett, Luke rf.........  4  2  2  1   0  1  2  0   0  .400
Buckman, Brandon 1b......  3  0  1  0   0  0 16  0   0  .298
Brown, Andrew lf.........  3  0  1  2   0  1  0  0   1  .318
 Jaros, Nick lf..........  0  0  0  0   1  0  1  0   0  .364
Opitz, Jake 2b...........  3  0  1  0   1  1  0  3   1  .293
Christy, Jeff c..........  3  0  1  0   0  0  7  1   1  .205
Sullivan, Nick dh........  3  1  1  0   0  1  0  0   0  .429
Edlefsen, Steve 3b.......  2  0  0  0   0  0  0  5   1  .182
Dorn, Johnny p...........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0     -
Totals................... 27  5  9  5   3  5 27 13   4Score by Innings                    R  H  E
Alabama............. 000 010 000 -  1  4  0
Nebraska............ 000 103 10X -  5  9  3E - Wehrle, R.(2); Brown, A.(1); Christy, J.(2). LOB - Crimson Tide 7; Huskers 4.
2B - Salem(6); Buckman, B.(3); Sullivan, N.(1). HR - Nimmo, B.(1); Gorsett, L.(7).
SH - Pennington(2); Nimmo, B.(2); Buckman, B.(1); Edlefsen, S.(1). SB - Paiml(3);
Jaros, N.(2). CS - Nimmo, B.(1); Opitz, J.(2).Alabama                IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF  NP   ERA
Bernard Robert......  5.0  6  3  3  1  4 19 20  88  3.09
Josh Copeland.......  1.0  3  2  2  1  0  4  6  24  2.77
Patrick Kelly.......  2.0  0  0  0  1  1  4  7  24  3.00Nebraska               IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF  NP   ERA
Dorn, Johnny........  9.0  4  1  0  2  8 32 35 107  3.33Win - Dorn, J. (3-1).  Loss - Robert (2-1).  Save - None.
WP - Robert(1). Inherited runners/scored: Copeland 1/1; Kelly 1/1.
Pitches/strikes: Robert 88/53; Copeland 24/14; Kelly 24/13; Dorn, J. 107/74.
Umpires - HP: Tom Svehla  1B: Bruce Allen  3B: Partick Spieler
Start: 1:06p.m.   Time: 2:11   Attendance: 5311
Robert faced 2 batters in the 6th.
Copeland faced 1 batter in the 7th.
Game: NU12