Cello or Baseball, He's a Good Player

Eric Olson - Associated Press
LINCOLN, Neb. - If you saw the 430-foot shot he launched over Haymarket Park's left field fence this week, you would say Nebraska's Luke Gorsett was born to hit home runs.

His parents would tell you that he was born not to round the bases but to round out a string quartet.

"Yes, before he was conceived, he was a cello player," said his mom, Loryn Gorsett.

Luke is, indeed, a highly accomplished cellist. He played with his mom, a violist, and older sisters Tera and Jackie, violinists, in the aptly named Gorsett Quartet. He also performed with elite symphonies in the Denver area through high school.

If he had wanted, a music scholarship wouldn't have been a stretch.

But Luke kept coming back to baseball. The ping of his bat is the sweet music he makes now, to the tune of a Big 12-leading 10 home runs in his first 21 games with the Cornhuskers.

Luke came to Nebraska from Garden City (Kan.) Community College, where he hit a nation-leading 24 home runs last season. He said he's not surprised by his fast start at the Division I level.

"I'm just sort of doing what I wanted to do," the soft-spoken right fielder said. "I wanted to make sure I was in the lineup and making some kind of impact."

Luke opened the season with a 12-game hitting streak, including a span where he had seven homers in nine games. He became the first Nebraska player to hit for the cycle since 1995, against Notre Dame, and he was named Most Outstanding Player in the Dairy Queen Classic in Minneapolis.

Coach Mike Anderson said Luke's start is no fluke. He pointed out that in a stretch of seven of eight games, opponents used their No. 1 starters against the Huskers.

"It would be easy to say he's off to a hot start and he can't keep that pace," Anderson said. "Guess what? Let's say he doesn't keep that pace. Let's say he drops down a little bit. That's still pretty darn good."

Undoubtedly, Anderson said, Luke is the best cellist to play baseball at Nebraska.

His mother, who works in violin restoration in Denver, introduced Luke to the cello when he was 5. He studied under a couple of members of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and it was apparent that he had talent.

He was top cellist in the Denver Young Artists Orchestra, and he also performed with the Colorado Young Symphonia and Littleton Symphony.

"I had to give up the cello for baseball," he said

The news just about broke his mom's heart.

"He's a real natural on the cello. When you see that, you hope they go for it," Loryn said.

"He didn't go for it. He went for baseball, which is maybe better. It all depends on if he gets drafted someday, I suppose."

Luke said he had to follow his heart.

He loves music, he said, but baseball is his passion.