[Husker] Baseball

[Skylar Dodds]

An update from the weekend:

Friday TXST 7 - NU 2
Neiderklien looked OK in the start.  Went 5 and gave up 3 runs.  But the NU
bats were cold, getting just 5 or so hits on the night.  Not only were they
not hitting, but striking out a lot, especially in important situations.
You can never draw too many conclusions from any one game in baseball, but
the early returns made you think maybe this team was just more of the same
from last year.  Josh Scheffert (remember that name) had a solo homerun to
tie it early, but the offense just wasn't there.

Saturday NU 8 - Air Force 1
In his first career appearance for the Huskers, True Frosh Jon Keller showed
it was easy to see why he was drafted in the 11th round by the Mariners out
of H.S. He was getting after pitchers early and often.  He went 6 IP, gave
up just 3 hits and struck out 6.  Cory Burleson had a nice 2 for 3 day with
2 RBI and Chad Christensen hit a solo homer for the big red.

Saturday NU 10 - Washington 3
A decent pitching performance from Sophomore Tom Lemke, 5 2/3 giving up 2
runs and striking out 3.  But the bats came alive again, highlighted by a
grand slam by soph Kash Kalkowski from Grand Island in just his 5th career
at bat (last year spent most of the year as a pitcher, now the starting LF).


Sunday NU 16 - Missouri State 4
Yost started the game and pitched OK.  He went 5 and 2/3 and gave up 3 runs,
but was really battling out of trouble a lot.  But the offense flat out came
to play.  The Huskers scored 16 runs on 24 hits, highlighted by the 2nd
grand slam in as many days for the Huskers, this time by Kale Kiser who had
an awesome 5 for 6 day today.  The hit parade was on as every starter had at
least 1 hit.


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Highlights:
Kale Kiser has been a leadoff machine.  He was 8 for 14 on the weekend with
5 walks for a .571 avg and a .684 OBP.  He only struck out 1 time and scored
8 times with 8 RBI.   What a great weekend.

Chad Christensen also had a great opening weekend with a .474 avg and scored
5 times.

True frosh Jon Keller looked VERY good on the mound, getting up on hitters
right away.  Lane Grindle went on and on about how good his stuff looked.

Another true frosh Brandon Pierce is penciled in as the Huskers closer this
year and he looked REALLY good as well.  His FB touches mid 90s and he's got
a great hook.  He got in a little trouble today and letup a run (with a 16-3
lead), but got two straight batters out to end the threat. 

If/when Ehlers gets back (I've heard Wichita State in April), it could very
well be true soph Lemke, true frosh Keller and true frosh Ehlers for your
weekend rotation that would look very promising sign for the future.


=====================
Overall not a bad start for the Huskers.  Yeah, they lost a game they should
have won Friday vs Tx St, but that's just the way baseball works.  Sometimes
you lose games you shouldn't.  Heck, the #1 team in the country (TCU) lost
to unranked Kansas today and #6 Texas lost to unranked Maryland yesterday.
It happens.  The good news is they came back and walloped a few teams they
were supposed to beat and the bats came alive.  Hopefully this is a sign
hitting coach Darin Erstad is rubbing off on these guys.   

Up Next: Northern Colorado x 2 and Sam Houston St x 2 in Texas again next
weekend.  After that, we have a midweek against Nebraska Kearney then #2
UCLA comes to town.  UCLA has 2 starting pitchers that will probably be
drafted in the 1st round next year.  They are legit, if you can make it out
to Haymarket, you'll get to see two pitchers that could end up in the bigs
in the very near future.

Enjoy!
Skylar