Rohr of the Crowd - April 26

Rohr of the Crowd is the official blog of Nate Rohr, the play-by-play announcer for Husker softball. Nate has called Nebraska softball games since 2004 and will call every game of the 2011 season. Nate is not employed by the University of Nebraska and the opinions and content of this blog are his own. Look for new blog entries weekly.  

Stat of the Week: Through six home dates, the Nebraska softball team is averaging 1,025 fans per home date, including the 18th and 19th crowds of over 1,000 at Bowlin Stadium.

The Loudest Rohrs: From the fifth inning of the Friday Missouri game, Nebraska ties the game at two with Nikki Haget's bases loaded walk , then takes the lead for good with Taylor Edwards' sacrifice lineout to center.

Hang On!
I told you last week: It's a long season. Trust it.

Of course, I may have been reassuring myself more than anyone else. Nebraska had lost four in a row in Big 12 play entering Friday's big matchup with Missouri. Chelsea Thomas entered the weekend with the nation's lowest ERA, and through four innings, she looked the part of the nation's best pitcher, and I was just hoping for a Husker hit. Meanwhile, Missouri's lineup plated two runs and had left two runners on in the second, third and fourth innings.

But to begin the fifth inning, Tatum Edwards blasted a double to centerfield. Then the magic or voodoo or good luck began. All of a sudden, the nation's best pitcher, who entered the game with 26 walks and 241 strikeouts (a strikeout-to-walk ratio of better than 9-to-1), lost her command. She scattered strikes through the at-bats against Heidi Foland, Gabby Banda and Madison Drake (in fact, she started each of them with strikes and was ahead of Banda 0-and-2), but surrendered two walks, then plunked Drake with a 1-1 pitch. Then Nikki Haget fell down in the count 1-2. Four pitches later, she drew a game-tying walk.

What was remarkable was that Thomas was well out of the strike zone with most of those balls. There was a borderline call or two that went Nebraska's way, but otherwise, Thomas was simply missing the strike zone. The next batter, Taylor Edwards jumped ahead 2-1 in the count, then blasted a liner to center that All-American Rhea Taylor flagged down, but by then, the damage was done.

In the span of 10 minutes, the Huskers went from just hoping to get a hit against Thomas and seeming destined to lose their fifth straight conference game to now taking the lead, and ultimately winning the game.

I've said it before: The margins between winning and losing in Big 12 play are so, so thin in this toughest of tough seasons. Many games, it takes just one inning, a few batters, to swing the game in your favor. And anyone who witnessed the two Texas games knows Nebraska was due some good luck. But the Huskers still needed to take the pitches, to not try to do too much, to take advantage of the opportunity given to them, and they did.

Hopefully, this win serves Nebraska as well as last year's win over the Tigers served NU. There's a decent strength to the argument that the Huskers more or less clinched their bid to regionals last year with their win over Missouri in the next-to-last game in the regular season. While Nebraska would seem a lock to get into the tournament this year, right now, it still was important for the Huskers to collect a big conference win. This year, Nebraska's nervousness will not be about whether it will be able to continue its season, but where it will do so. The win on Friday kept alive the possibility that there will be a regional in Lincoln.

Bracketology 2011: Part II
We mentioned in this space last week that a series in Des Moines between Drake and Illinois State would have a strong influence on the Missouri Valley Conference race, with a Bulldogs series win helping Nebraska's regional bid, since Des Moines is closer to Lincoln than Normal, Ill., the location of Illinois State's campus. Illinois State captured the series, two games to one, winning Saturday, 5-2. The Cardinals and Bulldogs are tied atop the MVC standings, but Illinois State would get the head-to-head tiebreaker for the No. 1 seed at the conference tournament if the season were to end today.

It will be interesting to see how regional-hosting bids are distributed. It seems like the best teams in the country are clustered in a couple of pockets around the country. The SEC, Big 12 and Pac-10 have dominated the national softball scene this year. As it looks right now, at least 12 of the regional sites will be at the home stadiums of schools in those three conferences. It would be a fair bet that Michigan would be the 13th regional site. That leaves three regionals up-for-grabs. I would assume one of the remaining three would go to a northeastern school. So how will the NCAA selection committee distribute those last two regionals? It will be interesting to watch how they react on Selection Sunday.

Errors and Omissions
One thing I failed to mention during our broadcasts this week was the fact that the Nebraska softball team was recognized as the winner of the Life Skills Award of Excellence for its community service. My extreme apologies, as this was a big honor for the team as it worked hard on off-the-field charitable ventures.

Weekly Warmup: South Dakota State and Texas Tech
Nebraska's game Tuesday against Northern Iowa was cancelled, so the Huskers open action this week against South Dakota State . The Jackrabbits were swept in a three-game series Sunday and Monday by North Dakota State. The Bison capped the sweep by beating SDSU in five innings, 11-0. Wednesday's doubleheader in Lincoln will be the final regular-season road games for South Dakota State, as the Jacks play their final eight games at home. The Jackrabbits have lost 10 of their last 11, and are 9-35 on the year. Ashley Durazo has shined amid her team's struggles, hitting .316 with five homers and 23 RBI. But she's only one of three SDSU hitters with a batting average better than .250. As a team, South Dakota State is hitting .234 while averaging 2.8 runs a game. Pam Nicholson and Kori Seidlitz have basically split the starts in the circle. Nicholson is 4-19 with a 4.87 ERA, while Seidlitz is 5-16 with a 6.74 ERA.

Texas Tech comes to Lincoln to take on the Huskers Saturday and Sunday, with Sunday's game broadcast on B 107.3 FM in Lincoln. The Red Raiders have lost four in a row and five of their last six, including a sweep by Texas of TTU last weekend by a combined 24-7. Tech will not play a mid-week game before its matchup with NU. The Raiders started the year 35-1 before entering conference play, and boast a potent offense that averages nearly eight runs a game. Seven Texas Tech regulars are hitting over .300, led by Cydney Allen, who transfered to Tech from Salt Lake C.C., where she spent her sophomore year after starting her college career at BYU. Allen has been a potent pick-up, hitting .398 with 13 homers and 52 RBI. Sandy James leads Tech with 15 homers and 58 RBI. Red Raider pitchers have pitched to a 3.25 team ERA, with Kelsey Dennis and Brittany Talley seeing the lion's share of the work in the circle. Dennis, a junior lefty, is 12-3 with a 2.62 ERA, while the freshman lefty Talley is 13-5 with a 2.79 ERA.

We'll talk to you Wednesday from Bowlin Stadium...

Husker Power!

Nate