Komine Fans 16, NU Drops Missouri, 7-2

Columbia, Mo. - Sophomore Shane Komine (Honolulu, Hawaii) established himself as one of the all-time greats in Nebraska history Friday night, as he struck out 16 Missouri batters en route to a complete game 7-2 victory over the Tigers. Komine, who was named last week's national pitcher of the week after tying a school record with 17 strikeouts against Kansas, baffled Tiger hitters, allowing just six hits in the contest to record his third complete game of the season.

He also moved past Phil Harrison (1986) for second on the single-season strikeout chart after starting the game in fifth on the all-time list. He now has 103 strikeouts on the season after starting the game in fifth.

"I felt really good out there tonight - especially in the last couple of innings," Komine said. "I had pretty good control over three of my pitches tonight and I felt like I had good velocity on my fastball."

"Shane was incredible," Head Coach Dave Van Horn said. "We played our game tonight. We had success bunting and we were able to control the game. A couple more hits and we could have scored a lot more runs."

Komine retired six straight batters in the eighth and ninth innings and closed out the game with his fifth consecutive strikeout. He also got plenty of help from his offense as Nebraska banged out 18 hits, marking the sixth time in seven games Nebraska has had 10 or more hits.

Nebraska jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second inning after sophomore John Cole led off the inning with a double and scored on a single from Brandt Vlieger. The Huskers stranded a pair of runners in the second after getting a lead off bunt single from Adam Stern and a walk from Justin Cowan.

Nebraska capitalized in the fourth inning when Vlieger notched one of his three hits to lead off the inning. Vlieger then advanced to third on a Will Bolt single, who reached second on Missouri's throw to third. Adam Shabala laid down a sacrifice bunt on the next play to score Vlieger and put Bolt on third. Matt Hopper grounded out to score Bolt and give the Huskers a 3-0 lead.

Hopper did some more damage in the fifth inning, hitting his eighth home run of the season after Dan Johnson led off the inning with a single. The home run gave Nebraska a 5-1 lead after Missouri scored a controversial run in the bottom of the fourth.

In the fourth, J.R. Warner hit a hard shot to Johnson at first base, who flipped the ball to Komine who covered first for the apparent out. But the first base umpire ruled that Komine missed the bag, awarding Warner a single on the play. Ryan Stegall, the league's top hitter, then doubled to set up an RBI groundout by Landon Brandes. Stegall finished the game with two hits in four trips to the plate.

Missouri's only other run came in the seventh after Komine surrendered doubles to Jon Williams and Wes Fewell.

The Huskers created a run in the ninth by capitalizing on an MU error and an RBI single from Justin Cowan.

Nebraska stranded 16 runners in the game, but made up for it by getting the lead off runner on base in six of nine innings. Johnson finished 3-for-3 at the plate, while Vlieger and Shabala had three hits apiece. The Huskers and Tigers will play Saturday at 5 p.m