Huskers Return Home to Face OSU

Nebraska Baseball Update
2007 Record (17-11, 3-6 Big 12)
Rankings: NR (CB) ? NR (BA) ? NR (Sports Weekly) ? NR (NCBWA)

This Weekend’s Schedule
Fri. April 6   vs. No. 20/13/15 Oklahoma State (22-6, 5-1) - 2:05 p.m.
Sat. April 7  vs. No. 20/13/15 Oklahoma State - 1:05 p.m.
Sun. April 8 vs. No. 20/13/15 Oklahoma State - 1:05 p.m.
Polls are in the following order: Collegiate Baseball/Baseball America/Sports Weekly

Probable Starters
Fri. NU-Tony Watson, Jr., LHP (2-1, 3.63 ERA, 34 K, 39.2 IP) 
       OSU-Oliver Odle, Sr., RHP (4-2, 4.50 ERA, 32 K, 42 IP)
Sat. NU-Johnny Dorn, Jr., RHP (4-1, 4.58 ERA, 26 K, 35.1 IP) 
        OSU-TBA
Sun. NU-TBA  
         OSU-Andrew Oliver, Fr., LHP (5-0, 4.85 ERA, 29 K, 29.2 IP)

Follow the Huskers This Week
Live Radio: Husker Sports Network (see network list on page 4) and for free on Huskers.com
Satellite Radio: Saturday and Sunday’s game will be carried on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (Ch. 140 both days)
TV: Saturday’s game will be carried on Nebraska Educational Television (Ch. 12) and NET-HD (Ch. 112). The game will also be rebroadcast on CSTV (Ch. 305 Time Warner Cable; Ch. 610 on DirecTV; Ch. 152 on DISH) on Tues., April 10 at 3:30 p.m.
Live Stats: Huskers.com
Live Video: All three games will be shown on HuskersNside (subscription required)

Huskers Return Home to Face Oklahoma State
Nebraska returns to the friendly confines of Hawks Field at Haymarket Park this weekend, as the Huskers host No. 13 Oklahoma State in a key Big 12 Conference series beginning Friday afternoon.

The series was adjusted from Thursday-Saturday to Friday-Sunday because of cold weather on Thursday. Because of weather concerns, all three games will have afternoon starts with the first pitch on Friday taking place at 2:05 p.m. with Saturday and Sunday’s games both slated for 1:05 p.m. starts.  Saturday’s game will be televised state-wide on Nebraska Educational Television (NET, Ch. 12) and on NET-HD (Ch. 112).

All three games will be heard on the Husker Sports Radio Network, including KLIN 1400 AM in Lincoln, KFAB 1110 AM in Omaha and KRVN 880 AM in Lexington and  for free on the Internet at Huskers.com. In addition, Saturday and Sunday’s contests will be carried on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (Ch. 140).

For fans who had tickets to Thursday’s originally scheduled contest, those tickets will be used for Sunday’s game (reserved or general admission seating) or they can be used for GA seating for any other regular-season game during the 2007 season. GA tickets for all three games this weekend can be purchased by visiting Huskers.com, calling the NU Ticket Office at 800-8-BIGRED or at the Hawks Field Ticket Office beginning 90 minutes before each game.

The Huskers (17-11 overall, 3-6 Big 12) began the week with a wild 12-10 victory over Creighton Tuesday night at Rosenblatt Stadium. The Huskers raced out to a 9-0 lead and rallied for two runs in the eighth after the Bluejays tied the score. Andrew Brown’s RBI double  - his second of the night - gave Nebraska the lead for good while Thad Weber and Steve Edlefsen made it stand up, holding the Bluejays off the scoreboard in the final two frames. Weber fanned four over 2.1 innings of one-hit ball for his first win while Edlefsen got the final three outs for his team-high fourth save.

The Huskers will be looking for their first Big 12 series win of the season this weekend and will have to do it against one of the country’s most potent offenses. OSU is 22-6 on the season and leads the Big 12 with a 5-1 record after sweeping Baylor last weekend. The Cowboys lead the Big 12 with a .354 team average and feature the 2006 Big 12 Co-Player of the Year in Tyler Mach, who leads the league with a .442 average with seven homers and 41 RBIs. He is one of six starters hitting .371 or better.

Leading Off
?-The Huskers are currently in the middle of a stretch where they play 13 of 16 games against ranked opponents. The stretch began last weekend at Texas A&M and will continue through the end of a three-game series with Texas April 20-22.
?-The Huskers are 6-0 all-time against Oklahoma State at Hawks Field and have won 11 straight against the Cowboys in Lincoln dating back to the 1999 season.
?-Nebraska Head Coach Mike Anderson will be seeking his 200th career win on Friday against OSU. Anderson has 199 wins in four-plus years at NU. When he reaches that plateau, he will be only the fourth coach in school history to reach 200 wins.
?-The Huskers have been hitting better in recent games, batting .314 as a team over the last seven contests after hitting just .259 over its previous seven games. NU has also strung together three straight games with at least 10 hits, the longest stretch since a five-game stretch in late February.
?-NU’s defense has been been much improved in recent weeks. Prior to committing six errors in bitterly cold conditions against Creighton on Tuesday, the Huskers had made just three errors in their previous seven games (.988 fielding pct.).
?-Nebraska’s triple play against Northern Colorado on March 28 was the first one by the Huskers since the 1998 season and only the sixth in Big 12 history (since 1997). The Huskers join Texas A&M as the only teams to turn more than one triple play, while the last two in league play have both involved the Huskers.
?-A pair of former Husker All-Americans opened the 2007 season in the Major Leagues on Monday. Alex Gordon made his MLB Debut in a 7-1 win over the Boston Red Sox, going 0-for-3 in becoming the 25th former Husker to reach the Majors. In addition, Darin Erstad started in center field for the Chicago White Sox, going 1-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs in a loss to the Cleveland Indians. Erstad, a two-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove Winner, spent his first 11 seasons with the Los Angeles Angles organization.
?-Nebraska’s bullpen has been solid in recent weeks, posting a team ERA of 2.30 over the last 17 contests, while holding foes to a .209 average in that stretch. NU is also 6-for-6 in save situations in that span.
?-Nebraska’s 12 runs against Missouri in the sixth inning on March 25 were the Huskers’ highest single-inning total since putting up 13 runs in the fifth inning against Chicago State on March 16, 1999.
?-Several Huskers has enjoyed their best success in two-out situations during the first half of the season. Andy Gerch has driven in 12 of his 13 runs with two outs, while Jake Opitz (10 of 24) and Craig Corriston (11 of 24) have combined to drive in nearly half their runs in two-out situations.
?-The Huskers enter the week ranked second in the Big 12 with 43 sacrifices, as 13 different players have  recorded at least one sacrifice bunt this year.
?-Four of NU’s six Big 12 losses this season have been by one run with three of them coming on an opponent’s last at-bat.
?-Nine of NU’s 28 games have been decided by one run, as the Huskers are 5-4 in one-run contests.
?-NU’s shutout against Western Illinois on March 21 marked the first shutout of the year for the Huskers, and the first since consecutive shutouts of Texas (6-0) and Wichita State (11-0) last April.
?-The Huskers are 12-1 when out-hitting opponents, but is just 5-10 when the opponent has as many or more hits. Sunday’s loss to Texas A&M was the first time this season that NU out-hit an opponent and lost.
?-Nebraska is looking to pick up its first extra-inning win of the year, as the Huskers are 0-2 so far this season. NU won all five of its extra-inning contests during the 2006 campaign.
?-NU is one of only seven teams in all of Division I baseball to post team ERAs below 4.00 in each of the last five years, joining Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, Oral Roberts, Rice, Texas and Wichita State.

Traffic Issues Around the Ballpark
The NDOR has announced that Sun Valley Boulevard from Charleston to North 10th Street will be closed beginning March 19th. This closure is to repair the abutments and decking of the bridge over I-180, and is expected to take about six weeks to complete. Detour routes will be marked on Charleston to North 1st Street then east on Cornhusker Highway.

Tuesday Recap
Andrew Brown’s eighth-inning double broke a 10-all tie, as the Nebraska baseball team held on for a wild 12-10 victory over Creighton Tuesday at Rosenblatt Stadium.

Brown, who went 2-for-4 with pair of doubles and two RBIs, gave Nebraska (17-11) the lead for good, sending a 1-2 pitch from Creighton closer Andy Masten into left, scoring Ryan Wehrle with the go-ahead run. Nebraska, which has won six straight games against the Bluejays, then extended its lead to 12-10 moments later on Jake Opitz’s RBI single.

The two runs were enough, as Thad Weber struck out a career-high four Bluejays over 2.1 innings of relief for his first career win. Weber (1-0) got the Huskers out of a sixth-inning, bases-loaded jam and allowed one unearned run on one hit in getting the Huskers to the ninth.
Creighton (18-9), which overcame a 9-0 deficit, made one last rally in the ninth and loaded the bases with a single, a walk and a hit batter before closer Steve Edlefsen got Steve Winklemann to ground out to end the game and collect his fourth save. Winklemann hit a hard shot to third baseman Jake Mort, who made a diving stop to his left and gunned the runner out at first for the final out.

The two teams combined for 22 runs, 28 hits and nine errors on a night where temperatures hovered in the upper 20s at the end of the game with wind chills in the mid-teens.

Six different Huskers had two hits, including Brown who scored three times, and Andy Gerch who also drove in a pair of runs in NU’s seven-run second inning.

Scouting Oklahoma State
Fourth-year coach Frank Anderson (135-75 at OSU) brings Oklahoma State into town looking to extend its Big 12 lead. The Cowboys are 22-6 on the year after sweeping Baylor last weekend in Stillwater. OSU has split its eight road games so far in 2007.

The Cowboys are loaded offensively, leading the Big 12 in hitting (.354), homers (45), RBIs (250) and slugging percentage (.588) behind a veteran lineup. Second baseman Tyler Mack leads the Big 12 with a .442 average with seven homers and 41 RBIs, as he is one of five regulars hitting .371 or better. Right fielder Corey Brown leads OSU in both homers (11) and RBIs (41), while third baseman Matt Mangini, who played at NC State in 2006, is hitting .386 with eight homers and 39 RBIs.

On the mound, the Cowboys have relied on senior right-hander Oliver Odle, who is 4-2 with a 4.03 ERA as their Friday night starter. Freshman lefty Andy Oliver has a team-best 5-0 mark with a 4.85 ERA in seven starts, while nine pitchers have at least one win.

The Cowboys lead the all-time series, 108-69 and won 2-of-3 meetings in Stillwater last season. As of late, the Huskers have enjoyed success in Lincoln, winning the last 11 meetings between the two clubs in the Star City since 1999.