Rohr of the Crowd - May 9, 2011

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: The Huskers enter their final weekend in the Big 12 conference with an all-time record of 171-106.

That Huge Last Step
No doubt about it, these last three games for the Huskers have been very tough to take.

Three times, Nebraska went into the seventh inning with a scoreless game. Three times they lost, the last two in walk-off fashion.

The Huskers have shown that they're good enough to battle with the toughest teams in the country, throughout conference play. Of their nine conference losses, four have come by one run and the Texas Tech game was 0-0 through six before the Red Raiders scored five in the seventh to win.

The second game at Baylor Sunday was a microcosm of Nebraska's situation. Time after time, Husker batters fought with Whitney Canion, battling to fill the count, fouling off pitch after pitch, pushing their count in their favor. But in the end, NU had just two hits to show for it and, most painfully, no runs.

Then in the bottom of the seventh, Megan Turk led off with a liner that Madison Drake nearly caught, but just missed. Baylor loaded the bases with one out, and brought No. 9 hitter Shelbi Redfearn to the plate. Ashley Hagemann sparred with Redfearn for 16 pitches. Redfearn swung at a pitch in the dirt and barely ticked it foul to stay alive at one point in the at-bat. But on the 17th pitch, Redfearn hit a fly to deep right-center that scored the run and won the game for the Lady Bears, and sent Nebraska to its third straight conference loss.

It takes a lot for a team to work itself into position to be one of the top teams in the country. To the Huskers' extreme credit, they've done that. They slashed through non-conference play and even stormed into Oklahoma and picked up a conference-season-opening win, the first time the Huskers had opened league play with a win since 2004.

But as much work as it takes to have a chance to be one of the best in the country, it takes more work to be one of the best in the country. You have to make that one pitch, or hit that one pitch, almost every time the game is in the balance. It's the biggest step a team needs to take. The Huskers haven't done that yet. They still have four chances to do it in the regular season. Hopefully, they can take that step against Iowa State and Oklahoma State, and be in a position mentally to win a regional. If Nebraska is going to win a regional, it absolutely must learn to finish off these close games and win them.

Brush with Greatness

As the Huskers got ready to fly home from Texas at DFW Airport, they ran into Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank. The star of Million Dollar Baby, among other acclaimed movies, was born in Lincoln, Neb., though she spent most of her childhood elsewhere. NU's softball team was able to rope her into taking a picture with the team.

What I'll Miss
This is Nebraska's last weekend playing softball in the Big 12 Conference. I joined most Husker fans in being excited about NU's move to the Big Ten. Along with providing long-term stability for our athletic department and an improved academic profile for the institution as a whole, it will be fun getting to know the towns of Madison, Ann Arbor, Columbus and State College, among others.

But that doesn't mean there won't be things I miss about life in the Big 12. On the softball end, I'll miss the Huskers' battles with Oklahoma, which brought out the best in both programs. NU/OU in any sport catches the eye of any true Husker, but the basic differences between the two programs (lots of left-handed pitchers at OU, a pipeline of tough righties at Nebraska, vicious offense at Oklahoma, a tight defense at Nebraska) and the combined quality of the two programs raised the level of those series, and forced both programs to raise their levels of play. I'll miss the warmer weather, of course, especially in March, when conference play begins not in Austin or Norman, but in Madison or State College. I'll miss Texas A&M's fans, who made a combined three losses this school year in football and softball somewhat less painful by their generous hospitality (I won't miss the Aggie Softball Complex, though, which was a wind tunnel with bleachers for the NU/A&M series this year). And I'm disappointed that I only got to do two games at Getterman Stadium in Waco, the only facility in the Big 12 that holds a candle to Bowlin Stadium.

But the Huskers' move to the Big Ten Conference is the rare change in the world of sports that I'm excited about. Nebraska vs. Michigan in softball should be a dynamic conference series. The Huskers' rivalry with Iowa in all sports should be a heated battle. There are things ending with Nebraska's move from the Big 12 to the Big Ten, but in the end, both the university and its sports teams are stronger for the move.

Bracketology: The Final Week
I've mentioned before that one thing I'm very interested to see from the selection committee is how they distribute regional host sites. In a couple of cases, teams very close together both geographically and in terms of quality will be jostling for that regional hosting opportunity.

That's nowhere more apparent than the Huskers' last stop, Baylor. The Lady Bears are 10-7 in Big 12 play and 39-12 overall. Texas A&M is 11-5 in the league and 39-13 overall. Assuming Texas hosts (a fair assumption, with the Longhorns on the verge of clinching the Big 12 championship), it would be very unlikely that both A&M and Baylor host, meaning the committee will have to split hairs to determine which should get to play the regional round at home. The Lady Bears may be finishing the season stronger, but the Aggies have a crucial advantage in that teams from Louisiana like LSU and Louisiana-Lafayette can bus to College Station and Houston is closer to College Station than to Waco, while Baylor and Texas hosting regionals wouuld mean those two schools are basically picking out of the same pool of teams to fill out a regional. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State may also be battling for a regional-host opportunity. The Sooners and the Cowgirls are fifth and sixth, respectively, in the Big 12, while OU has an overall record of 38-16 and OSU is 37-14. Tulsa can bus to either site, while area teams like Arkansas (which will not make regionals after not qualifying for the SEC Tournament) and Missouri State (which would need to win the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament) may not provide any help to Oklahoma State.

The power in college softball is so concentrated this year. The top teams in the Pac-10, Big 12 and SEC rule the day, with only Michigan standing as an exception. Will the NCAA look to reward merit and give as many hosting opportunities to top seeds in regionals as possible, even though it may force them to fly more teams to regionals, or will the NCAA look to control costs for the tournaments and create as many regionally-based regionals as possible? Time will tell. For Nebraska, the drama this year on Selection Sunday will shift from a nervous drama, wondering if the Huskers' season was going to continue, to a more fun drama, wondering which city will be pulled from the hat as Nebraska's NCAA destination.

Weekly Warmup: Iowa State and Oklahoma State

The Huskers take on Iowa State Tuesday in Lincoln and Thursday in Ames. The Cyclones are 21-24 on the season, 3-11 in the Big 12, and while ISU is the only team in the Big 12 not entertaining NCAA Regional hopes, their struggles belie the fact that the Cyclones have split two of their last three Big 12 series. Iowa State split with Baylor and Kansas before being swept at Oklahoma this weekend. The Cyclones average 4.7 runs a game while hitting .277. Sophomore Tori Torrescano paces the Iowa State offense by hitting .333 with 10 homers, 12 doubles and 32 RBI. Five Cyclone regulars are hitting over .300. Erica Miller leads ISU with 11 homers, while hitting .314 with 40 RBI. Iowa State has struggled in the circle, with a team ERA of 4.63. Senior Rachel Zabriskie has gotten the lion's share of the work, with a 14-16 record with a 3.99 ERA. The Cyclones have also struggled defensively, averaging over an unearned run allowed per game.

Nebraska's final two games in the Big 12 will be against Oklahoma State on Saturday and Sunday. The Cowgirls are 8-7 in the Big 12 and 37-14 overall, which puts the Pokes sixth in the league. Alysia Hamilton leads Oklahoma State and ranks second in the conference with a .397 average. She's hit 13 doubles and five homers. Mariah Gearhart is also having an excellent year, hitting .367 while ranking second in the Big 12 with 33 stolen bases. Chelsea Garcia has 49 RBI for the Cowgirls. OSU is seventh in the Big 12 with a 2.19 ERA. Freshman Simone Freeman and sophomore Kat Espinosa have basically split the starts, with Freeman getting 19 starts and Espinosa has made 22 starts. Freeman, a native of Austrailia, has had remarkable control, averaging 1.6 walks per seven innings. She's 9-6 with a 2.17 ERA. Espinosa has been solid as well, with a 20-6 record and a 2.35 ERA. Her control has been solid as well, with 2.4 walks per seven innings.

That's all for now...we'll talk to you Tuesday from Bowlin Stadium...

Husker Power!

Nate