NU Takes Four-Game Win Streak to Leadoff Classic

The 18th-ranked Nebraska softball team returns to the diamond for the first time in 12 days on Friday, Feb. 24, when the 4-1 Huskers face Illinois and Florida Atlantic on the first day of pool play at the prestigious NFCA Leadoff Classic in Columbus, Ga.

The 11th Annual NFCA Leadoff Classic field consists of 24 teams, divided into four pools. Twelve of the 24 teams are ranked, including two of the top five teams in the nation in defending national champion and fifth-ranked Michigan and second-ranked Tennessee. Nebraska will close pool play with a Saturday contest against Florida. Fans can listen to the Florida game for free live on GatorZone.com.

The top team from each pool will advance to the Gold Championship bracket, in addition to two at-large teams. The Silver Championship bracket will consist of the remaining second-place teams from pool play, as well as four at-large squads. The Bronze Championship bracket will be comprised of the eight remaining teams. Bracket play will include at least two games for every team.

Nebraska will be making its 10th consecutive appearance in the Leadoff Classic. NU owns a 26-20 all-time record at the Classic, including a 2-2 mark at last year's rain-shortened tournament that included a 9-1 run-rule victory over 15th-ranked Georgia Tech. The Huskers won the title at a rain-shortened Classic in 2002 and were the runner-up in 1998.

NU was off last weekend after opening the season at the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz., Feb. 10-12. In Arizona, the Huskers quickly recovered from a season-opening loss to then-No. 7 Stanford to close the tournament on a four-game winning streak. Nebraska defeated one ranked team at the tournament, defeating then-No. 15 Oregon State, 8-2, immediately following the loss to the Cardinal.

Huskers Return to Leadoff Classic
The NFCA Leadoff Classic celebrates its 11th anniversay with this weekend's tournament and Nebraska is no stranger to the prestigious event. The Huskers will be making their 10th consecutive trek to Columbus, Ga., for the Classic, where NU owns a 26-20 all-time record.

Nebraska was crowned the champion of the event in 2002 by virtue of a tie breaker when rain halted the tournament before it could be played to its conclusion. The Huskers also notched a runner-up finish in 1998. Both of those squads advanced to the Women's College World Series.

In the 2005 tournament, Nebraska dropped its opening two games of pool play to Cal State Northridge and 16th-ranked Georgia before rebounding with a 3-1 victory over Massachusetts in the final game of pool play.

The Huskers were designated to the Bronze Championship bracket, where Nebraska run-ruled 15th-ranked Georgia Tech, 9-1, in what proved to be the Huskers' final game of the tournament, as the last day was washed out.

Nebraska vs. Pool Opponents
Although Nebraska is familiar with the NFCA Leadoff Classic, the Huskers are far less familiar with their three pool play opponents.

Nebraska owns an all-time record of just 2-1 against its pool. The Huskers are 2-0 all-time against Florida Atlantic and 0-1 against Florida. NU and Illinois have never met on the diamond.

The Huskers have defeated Florida Atlantic in both all-time meetings, but the schools have not met since the 2001 season. Nebraska and Florida have met only once, with Florida earning a 3-1 victory over the eighth-ranked Huskers in 2004.

Scouting the Field
Florida Atlantic (4-6)
Florida Atlantic is 4-6 on the year, but has only been outscored 31-30. The Owls are hitting just .206 as a team, with Shauna Corso posting a .400 average with a pair of RBIs.

In the circle, Kathryn Stauffer is 1-5 with a 2.42 ERA.

Illinois (4-5)
Illinois is 4-5 on the year, including a 1-2 mark against ranked teams. Illinois and Nebraska share two common opponents, Oregon State and Utah State. NU posted a 2-0 record (15-4 run differential), while Illinois posted a split (15-16).

Illinois is led offensively by Jenna Hall, who is hitting .464 and slugging .750. In the circle, Claire DeVreese has seen the most action, compiling a 3-2 record and 2.88 ERA.

Florida (7-5)
Florida is 7-5 in 2006, but owns a 3-2 victory over then-No.1 and defending champ Michigan.

Kristen Butler is hitting .353 with six home runs to pace the Gator offense. In the circle, Lindsay Littlejohn is 2-3 with a 1.79 ERA.

Leading Off

Nebraska has won four straight games after a season-opening loss to then-No. 7 Stanford

The Huskers have outscored their opponents 21-6 during their winning streak

Right-hander Ashley DeBuhr has not allowed a run in 10.2 innings

Over that stretch, DeBuhr has allowed just five hits while striking out 20

DeBuhr boasts a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 15.5-to-1

Right-hander Molly Hill went 3-0 with a 1.53 ERA in her debut weekend

Nebraska has already matched its save total (1) from the entire 2005 season

Lizzy Aumua leads the team with a whopping .722 average (13-for-18)

Aumua reached base safely in nine consecutive plate appearances in a three-game span

Aumua has a current five-game hitting streak, including four multi-hit efforts

Seven Huskers are hitting .333 or better

Freshman Crystal Carwile belted three home runs and drove in seven runs on day two of her career

Four Huskers have homered through the first five games

Six Huskers hit a home run in the entire 2005 campaign

NU recorded 47 hits in its five games at the Kajikawa Classic

Nebraska was 9-for-10 in stolen base attempts on the opening weekend

Carwile and Devin Porter each have a five-RBI game this season

Nebraska is 3-0 when out-hitting the opponent

The Huskers are 3-0 when leading after four innings

NU has an all-time record of 26-20 at the NFCA Leadoff Classic

Nebraska is making its 10th consecutive trip to the Leadoff Classic

Start Me Up
Senior Lizzy Aumua started the 2006 season on an incredible note, hitting safely in each of Nebraska’s five games at the Kajikawa Classic Feb. 10-12. Aumua, the Huskers' leadoff hitter, also recorded four multi-hit games, including three games with three or more hits, en route to a whopping .722 average (13-for-18).

Against No. 7 Stanford and 15th-ranked Oregon State on the opening day of the season, Aumua went 6-for-9 with two runs scored, a triple and a stolen base. She followed the opening-day performance with a perfect second day, going 6-for-6 with three runs scored and two stolen bases against Cal State Northridge and Utah State. Against the Aggies, Aumua went a career-high 4-for-4.

At one point in the tournament, Aumua reached base safely in nine consecutive plate appearances, going 8-for-8 at the plate during that stretch.

Start Me Up, Part II
Not to be outdone, freshman Crystal Carwile not only got off to a tremendous start to the 2006 season, but an incredible start to her Husker career in the first tournament of her rookie season.

Carwile went 1-for-6 with an RBI in her first day, before exploding onto the scene on day two, finishing the tournament as the Huskers' cleanup hitter and boasting a .375 average, three home runs, seven RBIs and a 1.000 slugging percentage.

The Chino, Calif., native opened the second day of her career with a 1-for-3 effort against Cal State Northridge that included her first career home run. Carwile then put together possibly the greatest single-game performance by a freshman hitter in school history.

Hitting in the No. 4 spot for the first time, Carwile quickly produced with an RBI double in the first inning against Utah State. Following a ground out in her next at bat, Carwile belted a solo home run in the fifth inning and secured a Husker victory with a three-run shot in the seventh. She finished the game 3-for-4 with five RBIs.

Carwile closed her first weekend at Nebraska on a three-game hitting streak, finishing 1-for-3 against Nevada in the final game of the Kajikawa Classic.

Hill at Home in the Circle
While Crystal Carwile was making an immediate impact at the plate as a freshman during the season-opening Kajikawa Classic Feb. 10-12, Molly Hill stepped into the circle and produced in her first career tournament as well.

Hill appeared in four games at the tournament - including two starts - and posted a 3-0 record with a 1.53 ERA. In the first start of her career, Hill tossed a complete game and allowed just two runs in an 8-2 victory over 15th-ranked Oregon State. The Wayne, Neb., native then earned a win by tossing four innings of one-hit relief against Cal State Northridge and followed that performance with a victory against Utah State. Hill was the pitcher of decision in three straight games, earning the victory in each of those contests.

Hill allowed just four earned runs in 18.1 innings in her first weekend of competition. She also averaged nearly one strikeout per inning, striking out 18, while walking just five.

Carwile Climbing Freshman Home Run Chart
Freshman Crystal Carwile's three home runs in her first five career games are already the most home runs by a Husker freshman since Nicole Trimboli hit eight in the 2001 campaign. The school-record is 13 by Ali Viola in 1995.

Carwile's three roundtrippers would have tied for third-most on the 2005 NU squad and her total matches the home run total of the freshman home run leaders from the 2004 and 2005 seasons combined.

Husker Power
Nebraska exploded for six home runs in the first five games of the season after hittting just 19 dingers in 59 games a year ago. Freshman Crystal Carwile led the way with three roundtrippers, including two in the same game, becoming the first Husker since Peaches James in 2004 to hit more than one home run in a game. Senior Trisha Tannahill and juniors Carmen Kier and Devin Porter also homered for the Big Red.

NU totaled six home runs in only five games in 2006, after taking 18 games in 2004 and 12 games in 2005 to reach the mark. The Huskers enjoy a 6-to-5 advantage in home runs over their opponents, marking the first time since April 18, 2004, that Nebraska has more home runs than its opponents at any point during the season.

Freshmen Contributions
While Crystal Carwile and Molly Hill made the biggest impact of Nebraska's six-player freshman class at the Kajikawa Classic, all six newcomers made their career debuts in their first weekend as a Husker.

Meghan Mullin also made a significant impact, finishing the weekend with a .333 average (2-for-6) with a run scored in three games, including two starts. Catcher Brittany Pascale also started two games and pinch hit in two more, but finished 0-for-6, despite several quality at bats.

Kimberly Fuller and Darcy Rutherford did not earn a start, but both saw action. Fuller appeared in two games and went 0-for-1 with a walk at the plate. Rutherford appeared in all five games and scored two runs as a pinch runner.

Nebraska could utilize a regular lineup that features as many as four freshmen starters this season.

DeBuhr Approaches 400-Strikeout Mark
Junior right-hander Ashley DeBuhr posted 31 strikeouts in 16.2 innings in her first four appearances of the season, bringing her career total to 395. DeBuhr needs just five strikeouts to become the fifth player in school history to record 400 strikeouts in a career. DeBuhr set the NU sophomore record with 335 strikeouts in 2005.

Multi-Hit Games Boost Team Average
Nebraska opened the 2006 season by posting a .333 team batting average and recording double-figure hits in three of its first five games. The Huskers' offense proved to be potent in the first tournament of the season, even while facing stiff competition, including a pair of top-15 foes.

Senior Lizzy Aumua (.722 average) leads a contingent of seven Huskers who are hitting .333 or better. Fellow senior KoKo Tacha (.444) ranks second on the team, while freshman Crystal Carwile (.375) ranks third. Senior Jessica Yoachim, juniors Ashley DeBuhr and Devin Porter and freshman Meghan Mullin are tied for fourth with a .333 average.

Six Huskers have produced 13 multi-hit games through the first five contests of the 2006 season. Aumua leads the way with four multi-hit efforts, while Tacha, Yoachim and Porter have each produced two multi-hit games. Carwile and senior Trisha Tannahill have each recorded one multi-hit game.

Revelle Reaches Another Milestone
Head Coach Rhonda Revelle reached another career milestone on the second day of the Huskers’ season-opening Kajikawa Classic on Feb. 11. When Nebraska defeated Utah State 7-3 in its fourth game of the weekend, it marked Revelle’s 800th game as head coach of the Huskers. Revelle, who pitched for NU from 1981-83, also played in 128 career games a Husker and has currently been associated with 928 of Nebraska’s 1,535 all-time games (60 percent).

Statistical Anomaly
Except in rare instances, a player's on-base percentage is higher than their batting average. Senior Lizzy Aumua's phenomenal opening weekend provided one of those rare occasions.

Aumua is currently hitting .722 and boasts a .700 on-base percentage. The reason for the lower on-base percentage? Sacrifices, which Aumua knows well as she set a school-record with 27 in 2005.

Aumua is 13-for-18 in official at bats that make up her .722 average. On-base percentage, which looks at total plate appearances instead of at bats, counts sacrifices against the on-base percentage, whereas batting average does not account for sacrifices at all.

Aumua has two more plate appearances than official at bats and she has drawn a walk and recorded a sacrifice fly in those two appearances. While the walk helps her on-base percentage, the sacrifice fly does not and the .500 mark in these two extra plate appearances lowered her overall on-base percentage to .700, or .022 lower than her batting average.

Five Times the Fun
In a span of three games at Kajikawa Classic, junior Devin Porter and freshman Crystal Carwile each drove in a career-high five runs.

Porter produced five RBIs in consecutive at bats against 15th-ranked Oregon State in the second game of the season. She hit a two-run single in the top of the third inning and belted her second career home run - a three-run shot - one inning later.

Carwile matched the feat the next day when she drove in five against Utah State. Carwile had an RBI double in the first inning, a solo home run in the fifth and a three-run homer in the seventh to give her five RBIs in the game.

Prior to Porter's performance, Nebraska had not had a player produce a five-RBI game in 109 games. Porter and Carwile are also the first Husker teammates to have a five-RBI day in the same season since Nicole Trimboli and Amber Burgess accomplished the feat 29 games apart in the 2002 season.

NU Features Returning All-Big 12 Talent
The 2006 Nebraska softball team boasts plenty of talent and experience, but the Huskers also feature four players who have garnered six combined All-Big 12 accolades in their careers.

Senior Jessica Yoachim highlights the decorated returnees, as she has earned first-team All-Big 12 honors in each of the past two seasons and aims for her third consecutive accolade in 2006. Fellow senior Trisha Tannahill has also earned a pair of nods to the All-Big 12 squad in her career. Tannahill earned first-team honors as a sophomore and was a second-team pick last season.

The junior battery of catcher Jamie Waldecker and right-hander Ashley DeBuhr have also been recognized as two of the best in the league. One of the best batteries in the league and perhaps the nation, Waldecker burst onto the Big 12 scene as a freshman in 2004 and took home second-team All-Big 12 honors. After tossing only 36.2 innings as a freshman behind second-team All-American Peaches James in 2004, DeBuhr was a second-team All-Big 12 pick last year, throwing the third perfect game in school history and becoming just the second pitcher in school history to strikeout more than 300 batters in a single season.

NU Picked to Finish Fifth in Big 12
In a preseason vote of the Big 12 coaches, Nebraska was picked to finish fifth in the league in 2006.

Texas A&M, which claimed the regular-season crown in 2005, was the coaches' pick to win the league. Texas, last season's Big 12 Tournament champion, was tabbed as the No. 2 team in the league. Baylor and Oklahoma, respectively, rounded out the schools picked to finish ahead of the Huskers.

Each of the schools picked to finish ahead of Nebraska advanced past regional play in the 2005 NCAA tournament and is ranked in the top 15 of the 2006 NFCA/USA Today preseason top 25 poll.

Nebraska finished seventh in the Big 12 in 2005 with a 9-9 record after being picked to finish fifth in the coaches 2005 preseason poll.

Keen to Redshirt
Sophomore right-hander Jordan Keen is expected to redshirt this season in an effort to rehab a nagging back injury. Keen posted solid numbers in her freshman season, going 9-2 with a team-best 1.57 ERA last year. She also ranked second on the team with two shutouts, eight complete games, 89.0 innings pitched and 68 strikeouts.

Keen's injury forced her to miss the Huskers' 2005 fall season as well. Head Coach Rhonda Revelle and Associate Head Coach/Pitching Coach Lori Sippel hope that with the rehab time, Keen will return even stronger in 2007.

The Nebraska Circle
With Florida native Jordan Keen redshirting this season, the Huskers have three active pitchers on their 2006 staff, and each player is home-grown talent as a native Nebraskan.

Returning All-Big 12 performer Ashley DeBuhr hails from Beatrice, while fellow junior Jaime Borg is a Lincoln native. Freshman Molly Hill comes to Lincoln from Wayne, Neb.

The 17-player Nebraska roster boasts a total of five natives of the Cornhusker State, with three of those players working in the circle.

Approaching 1,000 All-Time Wins
In the official record book, Nebraska's 4-1 start leaves the program with an all-time record of 988-547. The Huskers need just 12 victories to reach the 1,000-win milestone, which would be another accomplishment for a highly decorated program that ranks among the nation's best.

Softball would become the first woman's program and only the third program overall at Nebraska to reach the 1,000-win milestone. Below is a look at how the Huskers rank among women's sports at Nebraska, all sports at Nebraska and softball programs in the Big 12 Conference.

Nebraska Women's Sports All-Time Wins
1. Softball - 988
2. Volleyball - 966
3. Basketball - 529
4. Gymnastics - 492
5. Tennis - 322

Nebraska Men's and Women's Sports All-Time Wins
1. Baseball - 1,763
2. Men's Basketball - 1,295
3. Softball - 988
4. Volleybal - 966
5. Football - 794

Big 12 Softball Updated Win Totals (games through Feb. 19)
1. Texas A&M - 1,314
2. Oklahoma State - 1,108
3. Oklahoma - 1,109
4. Kansas - 1,015
5. Missouri - 990
6. Nebraska - 988