[Husker] Baseball (Long, but hopefully good)

[Jeff Volk]

Great analysis on the baseball team's outlook for next season. 

As for a couple of the young kids that haven't really played that will
have to contribute, I would look for Mike Nihsen to get a lot of those
mid-week starts and for Lanning to be a lock for the starting C position
unless he really, really goes into the tank. 

Nihsen and Lanning were both named to the Northwoods League All-Star
Team this past summer. Nihsen was 9-2 with a 1.04 ERA while holding
batters to a .181 average against him. Lanning hit .274 with a team
leading 24 RBI in 35 games but hit a lot better at .384 with runners on
base. Remember that this is a wooden bat league, so pitchers tend to do
a little better and hitters a little worse than they would with the
aluminum in their hands. Both had pretty impressive summers. 

I saw Nihsen pitch for the Duluth team and he looked very, very strong. 

If both can carry that performance over to the spring they should give
the club a nice little lift. 

Jeffrey