Northern Colorado was a team NU Baseball Coach Mike Anderson said should not be taken lightly. An example Anderson used was the fact that the Bears were able to split a four-game series with then-No. 20 Texas A&M.
After this weekend, the Bears won't be able to say the same about their four-game series with the Cornhuskers. Nebraska (9-2) has won the first three games of the series with Northern Colorado (5-7) and will look for back-to-back series sweeps today at Hawks Field.
"It's not over yet, but so far so good," Anderson said. "We're having good rhythm, good pace and a tremendous amount of purpose."
The purpose of each game is to obviously win, and the winning continued for the Big Red on Saturday. A below-freezing Friday pushed the start of the series to Saturday, but that didn't cool off the Husker bats.
Senior Johnny Dorn threw another gem on the hill as he struck out a career-high 13 batters in NU's 12-2 rout. Dorn struck out the first seven batters he faced, helping him reach double-figures in the category for only the fourth time in his career.
The Saturday win set the Huskers up for a doubleheader with the Bears on Sunday, and game two proved to be more of a pitchers' duel.
It became an interesting matchup because the NU coaches may have known more about the Northern Colorado pitcher than they did about their own starter in junior Dan Jennings; mainly because the one pitching against them was former Husker Jon Klausing.
Klausing tossed six innings in the appearance while allowing only two runs and striking out five. It was an appearance that Anderson said he expected.
The game was a back-and-forth battle between Klausing and Jennings, with the first dent coming into Klausing's armor. NU took an early 2-0 advantage in the third inning, but Northern Colorado was able to climb back into the game with a run in the fifth and seventh inning.
The Huskers couldn't answer in the bottom of the seventh, and the game went to the bottom of the eighth tied at two. Senior Mitch Abeita was the first runner on with no outs after being walked by UNC reliever Sean Peery.
A failed sacrifice bunt opportunity didn't help NU's cause, but Abeita ended up stealing second.
Florida transfer Cody Neer struck out for the second out of the inning, but then NU found its advantage. Senior Craig Corriston was able to find some outfield green in the next at-bat, bringing home Abeita for the game-winning run in a 3-2 Nebraska victory.
Corriston hasn't seen much action through the early season, but with each game he is gaining more and more confidence in what he does. Although he said it was a thought in is mind, he said he knew what he could do with the at-bat.
"I've been fighting it a little bit," Corriston said. "Obviously I have a little work to catch up, but I've been catching up. We'll be all right."
Corriston said it didn't matter who was up to bat in that situation because he felt anybody could have been the guy to get that run in.
He saw evidence of that in Nebraska's next game, an 8-5 win.
The Huskers jumped on UNC's Dan Kazell early as they ripped off six hits and five runs in just nine at-bats. Kazell was taken off the hill after just more than an inning of work.
NU was able to then stretch its lead as far as 8-0, but the Bears didn't go away. Nebraska senior pitcher Thad Weber pitched five scoreless innings before the Bears found their swing in the sixth inning, recording four runs.
The Bears added another one in the seventh inning, but it wasn't enough to topple NU and, particularly, junior pitcher Zach Herr. Herr faced only nine batters, and just three of them were able to put the ball in play as Herr struck out a career-high six batters in just 2 and 1/3 innings of work.
He said his mindset on the mound was a big part of his success.
"You just have to keep throwing strikes," Herr said. "That's our whole philosophy. The first thought of everybody in the bullpen is to throw strikes. One of our goals is 65 percent strikes and I think every guy has done that so far."
The four-game series will wrap up on Monday when the Bears and the Huskers meet for the fourth game at 1:35 p.m. at Hawks field. Anderson said his team will be ready to play and to grow even more as a group.
"We're still establishing roles and some of them are getting set," Anderson said. "We still have a lot of work to get done in the bullpen, with hitters and just trying to get them comfortable with what they're going to do throughout the year."
spencerschubert@dailynebraskan.com
