Husker softball team begins season 3-3

Nebraska softball could have left this weekend's tournament 4-2 to begin the season.

Tatum Edwards could have remained an undefeated pitcher.

But neither of those things happened in Nebraska's last game of the Kajikawa Classic, as the Huskers lost to Georgia Tech, 6-5, in a game where they committed five errors.

The position changes for the Huskers might have caused the faulty play, but NU coach Rhonda Revelle said there's no excuse.

"We have new girls at different positions, but none of us expected that we'd make that many errors," Revelle said. "We're not going to beat it to death by reliving it, but we're going to get better. There's no excuse."

Errors weren't the only thing that caused the team to leave Tempe, Ariz., with 3 wins and 3 losses.

The Husker pitchers surrendered an average of six runs per game, including an 11-3 loss against Oregon State, a game that ended in six innings, and a Beaver team that finished 19-28 last season.

Nebraska also had 13 errors during the tournament.

Senior Ashley Guile said she couldn't explain the repeated mistakes made by the NU defense.

"I wish I had an answer to it," she said. "With the way we think about things, there's no excuses to what happened. Now we have to use the feedback from this tournament and work on that.

"What's done is done and we're taking it from there."

But don't let the negative performance numbers fool you.

Despite the error-filled weekend, the Cornhuskers did have its share of highlights this weekend, including a comeback win against No. 8 Arizona.

"Arizona is one of the best in the country," Guile said. "Starting out with them being our second game was a big test for us."

In their second game of the tournament, the Wildcats led the Huskers, 5-0, through three innings and a hit-by-pitch by pitcher Ashley Hagemann with the bases loaded in the top of the fourth forced in another run to stretch the lead to 6-0.

However, the Huskers didn't let the deficit bother them going into the bottom half of the inning.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, the NU bats came alive as two walks and a bloop single to center field by sophomore Edwards loaded the bases. Junior Brooke Thomason followed with a five-pitch walk to score Taylor Edwards, who began the inning.

It was the next batter that broke the door wide open.

In the next at-bat, junior Gabby Banda worked through a successful at-bat, hitting a grand-slam deep over the center field wall to lessen Arizona's lead to 6-5.

After scoring again in the fifth and sixth to take a 9-6 lead, the Wildcats crawled back scoring four times in the top of the seventh.

Arizona's Lini Kori hit her third home run of the night to help the team head into the bottom of the seventh leading ahead of the Huskers, 10-9.

But Huskers weren't intimidated.

In the final inning, NU's Edwards began the comeback with an RBI single, which left the bases loaded for the next batter, Courtney Breault.

"We have 21 outs to make things happen," Guile said. "It's team work and it was great seeing everyone contribute all around."

With two outs, the Arkansas transfer lined a 1-2 pitch into right field to give her team the win.

Guile said the clutch hitting that day is the memory that the team will remember most from the tournament.

"It was great to see our hard work pay off and come from behind to win it," the Olathe, Kan., native said. "There were things in that game we could have improved on, but it was great feedback to what we are good with."

More positive news came Monday for NU as Guile was named Big Ten Player of the Week, the first Husker softball player in history to receive the honor.

The first baseman batted .550 in the six games last weekend, going 11-for-20 at the plate, producing one home run, three doubles, eight RBI and eight runs scored.

Despite beginning the season 3-3, the team also outscored their opponents 38-37, with four of those games being played in less than 48 hours.

Revelle said playing six games in four days was a good challenge to start the team's 2012 season.

"We got tested in a way that will only make us better," the coach said. "It's not about how you come out of it — it's how you grow from that experience. To face three ranked teams and a quality opponent in OSU, it shows you have some good things going on with this group."

Guile agreed and said the quality pitching they faced this weekend will only make NU stronger for their Troy Cox Classic tournament in Las Cruces, N.M., next weekend.