Komine Fans 13, Huskers Blank Texas Tech

Lincoln, Neb. -- Sophomore pitcher Shane Komine (Honolulu, Hawaii) led the Huskers to their third Big 12 shutout of the season, allowing just two Texas Tech hits while striking out a season-high 13 batters, as Nebraska blanked the Red Raiders, 11-0, in front of 1,043 fans at Buck Beltzer Stadium Friday night.

"This is a great way to start off the series," Head Coach Dave Van Horn said. "But as we learned last week, we can't let up. Texas Tech is a solid ball club and we need to maintain our intensity in all three games."

Komine, who leads the Big 12 in strikeouts per game, struck out two batters through each of the first five innings to shut down the league's top offense. The shutout gave Nebraska its eighth win in nine games and marked the first time Nebraska has posted three conference shutouts in a season since 1990. The win also put the Huskers in a three-way tie for second place in the Big 12 standings.

The Huskers got on the board early in the first inning after Jamal Strong singled to lead off the game. Strong advanced all the way to second after a failed pickoff attempt from Texas Tech starter J.J. Newman. Two batters later, Justin Cowan hit his league-leading 12th double to score Strong.

In the second, Newman walked Matt Hopper and Will Bolt and gave up a base hit to Strong, which scored Hopper. Newman's struggles continued in the third, walking three consecutive batters with one out to load the bases. Hopper broke the game open with a base-clearing double off Steve Rowe to give the Huskers a 6-0 lead.

The Huskers added three runs in the sixth inning off reliever Clancy Fossum, who gave up back-to-back hits to Jeff Leise and Cowan before serving up a three-run home run to junior first baseman Dan Johnson. Johnson, who hit his sixth home run of the year and his fourth in as many games, took a 3-0 pitch over the right field fence after walking his first three trips to the plate.

Nebraska capped its scoring in the seventh, scoring two runs, including an RBI single from Cowan.

Texas Tech never threatened the Huskers and had just six base runners in the game. Komine struck out 10 of the first 16 batters he faced and allowed just one hit and no walks through the first five innings. Trey Lunsford's single to lead off the sixth snapped Komine's string of retiring 12 straight batters. The Red Raiders put two runners on base in the eighth when Marco Cunningham walked and Brennan Burns reached on catchers' interference. But Komine bounced back to retire the next three batters.

Junior lefty Brandon Penas closed out the game in the ninth allowing one walk.

In the game, Cowan went 3-for-5 and extended his hitting streak to 15 games. Strong went 2-for-5 and extended his streak of reaching base to 43 consecutive games. Johnson and Matt Hopper each collected a pair of hits and three RBI.

Nebraska (16-7, 6-4 in the Big 12) will take on Texas Tech (16-14, 5-5) in a double header on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m.