[Husker] Huskers win Tournament (Long as usual)

[Skylar Dodds]

Hello Husker Fans,

  Sorry for the lack of updates this last weekend, I had something
  come up with a friend that occupied most of my weekend, so I didn't
  get a chance to send an update.

  The games:

  Friday Night NM 6 - NU 2
  Johnny Dorn looked sharp, pitching 5 innings giving up only three
  hits and 1 earned run with 4 Ks. Unfortunately this was a very
  sloppy game for the Huskers with 3 errors, all seemingly coming at
  the worst possible time and leaving 9 Huskers on the base paths. We
  could only scratch out 5 hits and 2 runs and struck out 11 times.

  Saturday NU 5 - UTA 4
  Shirek looked pretty darn good until his last inning. I will say
  this, our pitching staff this year is just flat good. He finished
  kinda rough, with final stats of 5.1 innings, 9 hits, 3 ER and 2 Ks.
  Jennings / Herr / Bird cam in a shut things down to seal the win.
  From the plate, Jeff Lanning (who looks to be making a case for the
  #1 catcher everyday) and Thad Weber went 3/4 with an RBI each and
  looked sharp every time up to the plate.

  Sunday NU 7 - Il St 3
  Matt Foust made a solid case for the #4 starter going 5 innings
  allowing only 4 hits and 1 ER with 3 Ks.  Newcomer Bowman gave up 2
  ER (1 HR) but struck out 4 out of the 9 outs over the weekend and
  has great stuff.  Harmelink and Herr came in for the final 2 innings
  to seal the win.  The story of the day was Andy Gerch.  His 5 for 5
  day (and 2 SB) lit up the Illinois State pitching.

  ========
  Overview
  ========

  After one weekend we know, well nothing really.  But it's fun to
  diagnose anyway.

  Bats:
  1) I really hope Gerch can make a solid impact this year.  We really
  need his bat to light things up a bit.  He had the 2nd best average
  on the team over the weekend with .412 (7/17).
  2) Lanning probably is the #1 choice for catcher.  Although he
  really didn't get a chance to showcase his defense much, his bat was
  good this weekend going 5-10.
  3) Tezak was impressive in limited action, but did strike out 4
  times out of 8 ABs.  He had a double and two singles for a .375
  average.
  4) It's early, but at this point I can't tell you Nimmo's broken out
  of his funk.  There's no need to read into anything here, but the
  stats don't lie.  He was 3-15 on the weekend (and I know at least 1
  of those were infield singles) and struck out 5 times.  Not good for
  your leadoff hitter to have a .250 OBP.
  5) On Sunday, Belfonte took the leadoff duties and it worked
  reaching 2 out of 4 times and scoring once.  He might have been one
  of the most impressive surprises over the weekend, showing patience
  at the plate all day long.  He reached safely every game with 2
  hits, 5 BBs and 2 HBPs.
  6) Wehrle had a tough weekend at the plate as well, although I'm not
  that worried.  He had good contact most of the time and only struck
  out twice.  He also had the weekend's only Husker HR.
  7) Thad Weber also looked good at the plate, hitting 5-14 (.357)
  with an OBP of .429 but also struck out 6 times which again is a
  concern.
  8) Impressive was the 18 walks the Huskers drew over the weekend,
  not so good was the 28ks (Although 20 from Weber, Nimmo, Opitz and
  Tezak)
  9) Husker's also swiped 9 of 12 SB attempts and surrendered 3 of 3.

  Bats Summary: This team is very young. I suspect for the first part
  of the year we're going to have to deal with some excessive Ks
  (partly also due to not being outside until this last weekend).
  Overall I like what we're seeing with some very bright young
  players.  Brown didn't make the trip because of a team violation I
  believe, but is expected to be back next weekend.  That should help
  add some power to the lineup we really didn't have this weekend.

  Arms:
  1) Watson, Dorn, Shirek and Foust - Combined for a 2.56 ERA on the
  weekend and a 3-1 record.  Not bad for the first time to really
  shake the rust off.
  2) Watson walked 4 the first game, but overall had great stuff to
  makeup for it and had a stretch of 12 batters he retired in a row.
  3) Dorn and Foust looked great with almost identical stats, 5
  innings 1 ER and 4/3 strikeouts respectively.  Dorn's only blemish
  really was the 2 HBPs he gave up.
  4) Charlie really did look great up until that last inning.  He had
  scattered a few hits, but for the most part looked very good.  He
  gave up 9 hits, but I believe 5 or 6 of those came in the last 1.1
  innings he was in the game.
  5) The only two pitchers that had a really rough go of it was Luke
  Wertz and Steve Edlefsen.  Both had 10+ ERAs and the wheels kinda
  came loose on each.
  6) Jennings, Harmelink, Nihsen, Bowman and Herr all seem to be a
  solid middle relief.  The combined for 3 ER in 11.1 innings of work
  (2 ER for Bowman, and 1 ER for Herr).  Bowman had 4 Ks in only 3
  innings.
  7) We walked 16 on the weekend, which is a little high, but we also
  struck out 28 which was great!

  Arms Summary: Again, lots of young talent here, but this may be the
  most talented pitching staff we've had (I know that says a lot).
  The guy I might be most excited about though is Erik Bird.  In
  general, I hate bold statements because they're generally used to
  create hype when it's not deserved.  That being said, I think Erik
  Bird is better than Jensen.  I mean NO disrespect to Jensen at all,
  he was awesome for us.  I just think Bird is that good.

  Bowman is electric on the mound and if he can learn to 'pitch'
  rather than throw, which I have no doubt MA will accomplish, he's
  got some serious potential.  This weekend it was feast or famine
  with him though.  They either tagged him or looked ridiculous
  trying.

  Foust looked great for what was a big question coming into this
  year, "Who's #4?".  He showed some good control only walking 1 and
  held hitters to a .222 clip.

  On the weekend, we held our opp to .235 hitting (.190 and .176 for
  Watson and Dorn respectively).  Overall, I have very high hopes for
  this pitching staff and it should be able to make up for some young
  bats that will probably struggle at times.

  Defense:
  8 Errors on the weekend.  Too many.  3 from Opitz, but I don't see
  that continuing really.  That being said, it's the first time
  they've played on a friggin baseball field this year, I'm cutting
  them some slack.  In two weeks I won't say the same, but this is
  probably the biggest aspect of the game to suffer by not playing
  outside.  It's just impossible to simulate hops, ball movement,
  angles, etc when you're playing inside where they were.


  Overall:
  I really like what I saw out of this team this weekend.  We're still
  awful young this year with only 1 Senior really contributing (and
  only 2 on the team with Harmelink and Brown).  A combined 9 Freshman
  and Sophomores made significant contributions this weekend which
  goes to show how young this team really is.

  Freshman:
  Belfonte
  Nihsen
  
  Sophomores:
  Bird
  Bowman
  Herr
  Jennings
  Lanning
  Mort
  Shirek
  Sullivan

  Anderson alluded to this in his interviews, but the success of this
  year's team probably revolves around some young talent stepping up
  and making a significant contribution.  This team is loaded with
  young talent and has a bright future.  In my opinion, it's all about
  how quickly it comes together.

  We played some average competition this weekend and went 3-1.  It
  would have been nice to sweep, but Friday's game was sloppy and we
  were not great behind the plate.   I think our pitching will keep us
  in about every game, but we need the sticks to come alive if we
  want to really make a splash in the Big XII.
  
  Next up:  Rice Invitational.  Can't wait to play them Owls...

-- 
Go Skers,
 Skylar                            mailto:Sklarbodds at cox.net