Huskers Scorch Devils for First CWS Win

 

Huskers Scorch Devils for First CWS Win

College World Series Game 2 -- Nebraska 5, Arizona State 3
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Omaha - The No. 3 national seed Nebraska Cornhuskers came up with several key hits and received another solid pitching performance while running their winning streak to a season-high 11 games by defeating Arizona State, 5-3, in front of a College World Series Session 2 record crowd of 24,904 Friday at Rosenblatt Stadium.

With the victory, Nebraska improved to 57-13 on the year while picking up its first-ever victory in three trips to the CWS. The Huskers will try to add a second straight CWS win on Sunday when they face No. 7 national seed Florida in a winner's bracket game at 6 p.m. on ESPN2. The Gators advanced with a 6-4 victory over SEC rival Tennessee in Friday's first game. 

Nebraska opened the game with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first. Joe Simokaitis extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a one-out single and advanced on an Alex Gordon walk. Simokaitis, who was the only Husker to produce two hits on the night, scored Nebraska's first run of the CWS on Curtis Ledbetter's single up the middle, and Gordon came across when ASU right fielder Travis Buck dropped a fly ball off the bat of Ryan Bohanan that would have been the third out.

The Sun Devils scratched out a run in the top of the next frame to cut the Husker advantage to 2-1. Seth Dhaenes singled with two outs and came around on Joey Hooft's double before Nebraska starter Joba Chamberlain got out of the jam.

Chamberlain, who was making his NU single-season record tying 18th start of the year, went on to retire 10 straight ASU batters over the next three innings before running into trouble in the top of the sixth. Chamberlain gave up a leadoff walk to No. 9 hitter Andrew Romine before Jeff Larish singled to center. After a sacrifice advanced the runners, the Huskers issued an intentional walk to Colin Curtis to load the bases with one out.

Tuffy Gosewisch, the Sun Devils' RBI leader, then doubled to the gap in right center to drive in a pair of runs. Gosewisch would have had three RBIs but second baseman Ryan Wehrle made a perfect relay from right fielder Andy Gerch to catcher Jeff Christy, who tagged out Curtis at the plate for the second out of the inning.

Nebraska answered in the bottom of the sixth by scoring three runs to take a 5-3 lead. NU loaded the bases with a single, walk and hit by pitch to chase Sun Devil reliever Zechry Zinicola, who fell to 3-4 with the loss.

Ryan Wehrle then greeted reliever Brett Bordes with a sharp single up the middle for the game-winning runs. Christy followed with an RBI single down the right field line to give NU a two-run cushion.

The clutch hitting of Wehrle and Christy made a winner out of Chamberlain, who improved to 10-2 on the season by pitching 7.0 strong innings, scattering five hits and three runs while striking out four. Chamberlain threw 104 pitches on his way to becoming NU's second 10-game winner of the season, joining freshman Johnny Dorn (12-1) with double-figure wins.  Chamberlain and Dorn became the first Husker duo in history to win 10 or more games in the same season.

Chamberlain was not the only Husker pitcher to make it into the record books, as closer Brett Jensen came on with two outs in the eighth and shut down the Sun Devils for his 16th save of the season. Jensen, who already owned the Huskers' single-season saves mark, moved into sole possession of the NU career mark with his 18th save over the past three seasons.

Jensen has notched four consecutive saves in NU's last four NCAA Tournament wins, hurling 5.1 consecutive scoreless innings.  He has struck out five, walked none and allowed just one hit during that stretch.