The Nebraska softball team will put its seven-game winning streak to the test this weekend, when the Huskers travel to College Station, Texas, for a pivotal Big 12 Conference series with the fourth-ranked Texas A&M Aggies.
Fans can follow all of the action on Huskers.com, which will offer free audio and live streaming video to HuskersNSide subscribers for both games, courtesy of Texas A&M.
NU has not only won seven straight but is 19-4 in its last 23 games after ending March 3 with an 8-7 record. The Huskers have played their most complete ball of late and the pitching has been spectacular.
Senior right-hander Ashley DeBuhr and sophomore Molly Hill have put up impressive numbers in the circle during the Huskers’ current seven-game win streak. DeBuhr has tossed two consecutive shutouts - including a no-hitter - while Hill has thrown three consecutive shutouts and was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday.
Overall, the NU staff has thrown three consecutive shutouts and has not allowed a run in 22.2 innings. In its last six games, the Huskers have thrown five shutouts.
In addition to trying to keep its current streaks in tact, Nebraska will be looking to snap at least one streak this weekend.
When the Huskers and Aggies square off on Friday, Nebraska will be looking to halt a six-game losing streak to top-five foes. The Huskers lost twice to third-ranked Texas last year, twice to the No. 5 Longhorns in 2005 and were eliminated from the 2004 NCAA Tournament by second-ranked California.
NU has struggled to score in each of its losses to top-five teams, managing only five runs in the six games, including four in a 5-4 loss to Texas last season.
Fortunately for the Huskers, the NU offense has been at its best of late, scoring 25 runs over the seven-game win streak for an average increase of nearly one run per game.
The offense has also been opportunistic, producing runs even with limited hits, including one run on one hit against Colorado State on March 28 and four runs on four hits last Sunday against Texas Tech.
Nebraska may need the opportunistic offense to post its first victory over a top-five team since a 1-0 win over third-ranked Florida State in 2004. That year, the Huskers posted a 2-3 record against top-five squads.
The Huskers are set to face a similar stretch this season as they host 11th-ranked Texas in a two-game league series next weekend before traveling to No. 3 Oklahoma the weekend of April 21.
Scouting Texas A&M
Texas A&M enters this weekend with a 29-6 record after being handed its first home loss in 15 games by 16th-ranked Baylor on Wednesday, 3-1, in eight innings. The Aggies have lost three of their last four games and are just 3-3 in the Big 12 Conference, but those numbers are deceiving as each of Texas A&M’s last four games have come against a top-10 opponent, including three on the road.
Texas A&M and Nebraska share three common opponents this season in Fresno State, Arkansas and Baylor. The Aggies own a 3-1 record against these teams, while the Huskers posted a 2-4 mark.
TAMU is led by a balanced offense and defense. The Aggies are averaging better than five runs per game, while allowing just over two.
Megan Gibson leads the team with a .410 average, and also represents the top slugging threat with team-high totals of two triples and nine home runs - one more than the entire Nebraska roster. Sharonda McDonald is the Aggies’ top speed threat, as she ranks second on the team with a .344 average, while leading the team with 33 runs scored and 27 stolen bases in 28 attempts.
In the circle, Amanda Scarborough is 14-4 with a 1.21 ERA and opponents are hitting just .178 against her. A&M has been hurt by the defense, as Scarborough has allowed 44 runs (only 21 earned) in 121.1 innings. Gibson is the Aggies’ No. 2 pitcher, compiling a 12-2 record with a 1.76 ERA and 95 strikeouts in 87.1 innings of work.
A Look at the Series History
Texas A&M and Nebraska have a storied history that dates back to the second year of the NCAA era and includes two meetings in the Women’s College World Series. The Huskers and Aggies are tied for the most NCAA Tournament berths all-time among Big 12 schools, and rank 1-2, respectively, in the league in all-time WCWS appearances. Texas A&M leads the all-time series with NU, 25-22.
The teams have split the last 10 meetings and all but one of those contests has been decided by two runs or less, including five extra-inning contests. The Aggies and Huskers met just once last year, when Nebraska earned a 3-2 victory.
In that game, NU was out-hit 8-4, but the Huskers collected two hits in a three-run third inning that was aided by a pair of A&M errors. Texas A&M added two runs to close the gap to one in the top of the sixth, but Ashley DeBuhr retired four of the final five hitters to secure the victory. DeBuhr tossed a complete-game, allowing two runs on eight hits while striking out seven and walking two.
The last time the teams met in College Station, the Aggies swept the Huskers en route to capturing the Big 12 regular-season title. Texas A&M pulled out a 4-2 victory in game one. Errors led to both of Nebraska’s runs, but the Huskers also had a potential first-inning grand slam from Trisha Tannahill brought back by Jana James who reached over the fence to make the catch.
A&M then handed Nebraska a 6-0 loss in the final game of the series. That defeat marked the Huskers’ largest loss in Big 12 play since a 13-0 run-rule loss to eventual national champion Oklahoma in 2000.
DeBuhr Notches Third Career No-Hitter
Senior right-hander Ashley DeBuhr tossed the Huskers’ first no-hitter of the season - and the third of her illustrious career - in game two of a doubleheader with Texas Tech last Sunday. DeBuhr hit three batters and surrendered one walk, but she did not allow a ball to leave the infield while striking out 13, including the final four batters of the game.
By throwing her third career no-hitter, DeBuhr moved into a four-way tie for second place on the NU career chart. Each of DeBuhr’s three no-hitters have come at Bowlin Stadium against Big 12 competition in the month of April, including one in 2005 against Iowa State and one last year against Kansas.
Her no-hitter against the Cyclones also marked only the third perfect game in school history.
Hill Named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week
Sophomore right-hander Molly Hill was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday. Hill did not allow a run in three starts last week, while stretching her career-best scoreless innings streak to 19.1. Hill, who entered the week with two shutouts in 14 starts this season, picked up three shutouts in three starts on the week, while striking out 27 in only 19 innings of work.
In her first action of the week, Hill tossed a one-hit shutout in a rain-shortened five-inning contest against Drake. The right-hander then blanked Colorado State while striking out 11, before finishing the week with the first Big 12 shutout of her career against Texas Tech on Sunday.
Hill not only posted three consecutive shutouts, but opposing teams were barely able to mount a scoring threat as she allowed only three of the 78 batters she faced to advance past second base.
A native of Wayne, Neb., Hill currently leads the Big 12 Conference with a 1.03 ERA. On the season, Hill has compiled a 12-6 record with 135 strikeouts in 122.0 innings. She has allowed one earned run or less in 13 of her last 15 games.
Gonzalez Out for the Season
Freshman outfielder Crystal Gonzalez, who appeared in 30 of the Huskers’ first 34 games - including 23 starts - suffered a season-ending knee injury prior to Nebraska’s April 1 doubleheader with Texas Tech. In NU’s final practice before the series with the Red Raiders, Gonzalez tore her ACL.
Gonzalez is scheduled to undergo surgery on April 16. Although she will miss the remainder of her freshman season, she is expected to be at full strength for the Huskers’ 2007 fall season.
Huskers Post 10th Shutout for 10th Straight Season
When senior right-hander Ashley DeBuhr tossed her second straight shutout at Kansas on Wednesday, it gave the Huskers 10 shutouts this season, marking the 10th consecutive season NU has posted at least 10 shutouts. The last time a Nebraska team failed to record 10 shutouts in a season was in 1997, when the Huskers managed only five shutouts in 53 games.
Streaking Huskers
The Huskers have been a streaky team of late, posting a winning streak of 12 games before losing four straight and then rebounding with their current seven-game win streak. The 12-game winning streak tied the program’s longest since 2002, while the four-game losing streak tied NU’s longest since 1996.
Nebraska’s streaky play has not been limited to results only, however. During the losing streak, the Huskers went 23.0 innings without scoring a run while the NU pitching staff currently boasts a scoreless innings streak of 22.2 during its seven-game win streak.
In fact, in its first Big 12 Conference series, the Huskers were shut out twice before turning around against Texas Tech and shutting out the Red Raiders twice.
Nebraska will be looking to keep several streaks alive this weekend, including the seven-game win streak, the three-game shutout streak and the 22.2 scoreless innings streak. The Husker defense has a streak of its own to protect, as it has posted a season-high three-game errorless streak, totaling 82 consecutive chances.
Several individuals also have significant streaks on the line this weekend, including:
- Senior Ashley DeBuhr - season-high two consecutive shutouts
- Senior Ashley DeBuhr - season-high 15.2 scoreless innings streak
- Senior Ashley DeBuhr - career-best four consecutive starts with 10 or more strikeouts
- Sophomore Molly Hill - career-best three consecutive shutouts
- Sophomore Molly Hill - career-best 19.1 scoreless innings streak
- Sophomore Molly Hill - career-best 37 consecutive chances without an error
- Senior Carmen Kier - career-high four-game hit streak
- Sophomore Brittany Pascale - career-best three consecutive games with at least one RBI
- Senior Devin Porter - season-high 24 consecutive chances without an error
- Senior Jamie Waldecker - career-best 172 consecutive chances without an error
Porter Sets School Record
Senior Devin Porter was hit by a pitch in game two of last Sunday’s doubleheader with Texas Tech, marking the fourth time this season Porter has been hit by a pitch. Porter has now been hit by 18 pitches in her career, breaking the previous school record of 17, set by Trisha Tannahill just last season.
A Look at the Expected Lineup
1. Whitney Barrett, 2B (20 starts, .216, 0 HR, 4 RBIs)
Barrett earned 13 starts at second base through the first 22 games of the season, before being limited by a hand injury. Barrett returned to start all six games last week, and has moved into the leadoff role in the order. Barrett had eight hits in six games last week after entering the week with only three career hits.
2. Meghan Mullin, CF (38 starts, .336, 0 HR, 8 RBIs)
Mullin saw limited action as a freshman in 2006, but showed good patience and bat control in the box. As a regular starter this season, Mullin has already surpassed her freshman totals in nearly every category and she leads the team with 39 hits, a .336 average and 10 stolen bases, while recording her first career extra-base hit.
3. Crystal Carwile, 1B (38 starts, .286, 1 HR, 19 RBIs)
Carwile burst onto the scene as a freshman in 2006, homering three times in her first weekend en route to finishing with 12 home runs, one shy of the NU freshman record. Carwile began the 2007 season slowly after missing the offseason with shoulder surgery, but has emerged recently and has 15 RBIs in her last 19 games.
4. Jamie Waldecker, C (15 starts, .209, 1 HR, 4 RBIs)
A clutch hitter with power, Waldecker is also one of the best defensive catchers in the Big 12 Conference. A broken hand forced her to miss 18 games, but she made a dramatic return, starting her first game at catcher in 25 games against Drake on March 27 and finishing with two RBIs, including a walk-off RBI single.
5. Brittany Pascale, DP (36 starts, .250, 1 HR, 8 RBIs)
Pascale showed continued improvement throughout 2006 and emerged as one of NU’s most clutch hitters. Pascale had three seventh-inning, pinch-hit at bats that resulted in the game-tying run. In 2007, she has drawn a team-high 20 walks to become the first Huskers since 2005 to draw 20 walks in a season.
6. Devin Porter, SS (38 starts, .259, 2 HRs, 10 RBIs)
Porter has made great progress as a player through her first three seasons in the Husker program. She has been named the Huskers’ Most Improved Player in each of the last two years and enjoyed her best season in 2006, when she earned second-team All-Big 12 honors after leading the Huskers with a .360 average in league play.
7. Alex Hupp, LF (22 starts, .108, 1 HR, 4 RBIs; 4 starts, 2-0, 1.98 ERA, 12 Ks, 17.2 IP)
A two-time NFCA High School All-American, Hupp is a solid pitcher who can also hit. She tossed a one-hit shutout in her first career start and boasts an ERA under 2.00. Hupp has moved to the outfield so her bat can be in the lineup. She is hitting just .108 this year but has three doubles, a homer and four RBIs.
8. Haley Long, RF (30 starts, .284, 0 HR, 11 RBIs)
Long was a late find for the Huskers as she was brought in this past summer to add depth to the outfield. Long has appeared in 31 of NU’s 38 games and ranks third among all starters with a .284 average. She has also recorded four doubles and 11 RBIs, while striking out only five times, drawing six walks and being hit by two pitches.
9. Carmen Kier, 3B (38 starts, .198, 0 HR, 9 RBIs)
Kier is in her second season as the everyday starter at third after belting a career-high five homers and driving in a career-high 19 in 2006. Known as a patient hitter, Kier has drawn 46 career walks, including eight this season to rank second on the team. She also boasts power as nearly 30 percent of her career hits have gone for extra bases.
10. Ashley DeBuhr, RHP (17 starts, 13-5, 1.38 ERA, 172 Ks, 126.2 IP; 10 starts, .200, 1 HR, 4 RBIs)
DeBuhr continued to be more dominant in the circle, following her second-team All-Big 12 and All-Midwest honors from 2005 with first-team selections in 2006. One of 50 players named to the 2007 USA Softball Preseason Player of the Year Watch List, she has two shutouts and has five starts against ranked teams (3-2 record).
Jaime Borg, OF (5 starts, .273, 0 HR, 0 RBIs)
Borg moved back to the outfield after being the Huskers’ No. 3 pitcher in each of the past two seasons. She recorded has three hits this season after having only one career hit entering her senior season.
Kimberly Fuller, INF (19 starts, .130, 1 HR, 7 RBIs)
In limited action in 2006, Fuller went 2-for-11, but drew three walks to post a .357 on-base percentage. She has split time at second base with Whitney Barrett, earning 19 starts this season.
Darcy Rutherford, OF (21 starts, .250, 0 HR, 2 RBIs)
Rutherford is arguably the Huskers’ most improved player. Primarily a pinch runner in 2006 when she appeared in 25 games and scored four runs, Rutherford went 2-for-4 in the first weekend to post her first career hits.
Molly Hill, RHP (17 starts, 12-6, 1.03 ERA, 135 Ks, 122.0 IP)
Hill is the Huskers’ No. 2 pitcher, but has the credentials to be the ace of nearly any staff. As a freshman, Hill went 18-2 to establish a school-record .900 winning percentage. She is 12-6 this year with a Big 12-low 1.03 ERA.
Crystal Gonzalez, OF (23 starts, .214, 0 HR, 0 RBIs)
Gonzalez was the Huskers’ top defensive outfielder and was also possibly the fastest player on the team. She tore her ACL prior to an April 1 doubleheader with Texas Tech and is out for the season.
In Control in the Circle
Nebraska boasts one of the top pitching staffs in the nation and currently leads the Big 12 Conference with a collective 1.26 ERA. While the right-handed duo of senior Ashley DeBuhr and sophomore Molly Hill have been consistently solid all year, they have stepped up their play during Nebraska’s current seven-game win streak.
In the current streak, DeBuhr and Hill combined to post a 0.58 ERA while tossing five shutouts, including three straight. The pair have held opponents to a paltry .160 average, highlighted by DeBuhr’s no-hitter against Texas Tech. The duo also posted a whopping 78 strikeouts in only 48.0 innings.
Hill stretched her career-high scoreless innings streak to a current 19.1 innings while not allowing a run last week and tossing three shutouts. DeBuhr currently owns a 15.2-inning scoreless streak. DeBuhr has also posted 10 or more strikeouts in each of her last four games and in each of her last six starts when throwing at least 7.0 innings.
Hill currently leads the Big 12 with a 1.03 ERA and in addition to the Huskers’ league-leading 1.26 team ERA, NU also leads the league with 319 strikeouts and a .193 opponent batting average. In conference-only action, Nebraska leads the league with a 0.85 ERA, three shutouts and a 9.12 strikeouts-per-seven-innings average.
Defense Stepping Up
Pitching is not the only facet of the game the Huskers have improved on lately. Defensively, NU has committed just three errors in its current seven-game win streak. Nebraska has posted five errorless games in its last six contests and has not committed an error in its last 82 chances.
Before the current streak, the Huskers had gone an entire game without an error only nine times through the first 33 contests. NU has also turned one double play and thrown out 3-of-10 would-be base stealers after allowing opponents to successfully steal nine bases in their previous 10 attempts.
Hitting Stride
With the pitching and defense performing the best it has all season, the Husker offense came around last week to give NU the missing piece of the puzzle. With all three facets of the game beginning to click, the Huskers are playing their best ball of the season entering their most difficult stretch of the season.
After being held scoreless for 23.0 innings - including being shut out in back-to-back games for the first time since 1999 - the Nebraska offense has increased its hits and runs output during its current seven-game win streak. The Huskers are hitting .259 during the streak and produced back-to-back games with 10 or more hits last week after recording a double-digit hit total only three times through the first 34 games.
Even when the Huskers weren’t pounding out a lot of hits, they were maximizing the hits they did get. In a 1-0 victory against Colorado State, Nebraska was out-hit 6-1 and the Huskers had only one baserunner the entire game. That lone baserunner was sophomore Brittany Pascale, who hit a solo home run to lift the Nebraska to the victory. The Huskers also managed four runs on four hits in the second game of last Sunday’s doubleheader with Texas Tech and three runs on only five hits at Kansas on Wednesday.
Not surprisingly, the Huskers’ strong overall play led Nebraska to post its largest and second-largest margins of victory this season against Texas Tech. The Huskers have outscored their last three opponents by a combined score of 13-0, averaging more than four runs per game.
DeBuhr Reaches Milestone
When senior right-hander Ashley DeBuhr struck out the first batter of what proved to be a 16-strikeout performance in game two of a March 28 doubleheader with Colorado State, the strikeout marked the 800th of her career.
DeBuhr is one of only four pitchers in Nebraska history to record 800 or more career strikeouts and the Beatrice native passed her pitching coach, Lori Sippel, for third place on the NU record list on Wednesday with a 13-strikeout performance at Kansas. DeBuhr is just 19 strikeouts away from moving into sole possession of second place on the NU charts and only 105 strikeouts away from tying Peaches James’ school record.
Barrett Boosts Huskers
Returning to the lineup for the first time in 10 games, freshman Whitney Barrett enjoyed a tremendous six games last week, as she surpassed her career totals in hits, runs and RBIs in only six games last week. Barrett went 3-for-4 against Drake in her first start in two weeks and added a walk-off double in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift Nebraska to a 4-3 victory that snapped a season-high four-game losing streak for the Huskers. Entering the game, Barrett was just 3-for-26 with one RBI in her career.
Barrett then moved into the leadoff spot in the order in the next game and has started the last six contests there. As the leadoff hitter, Barrett has posted a batting average .038 higher than the Huskers’ leadoff hitters had been hitting through the first 32 games.
Barrett’s move to the leadoff spot sparked a Husker offense that had been shut out in two of its last three games. Nebraska has scored 21 runs in six games with Barrett batting leadoff, including five runs and two RBIs from Barrett.
In her first game at the leadoff spot, Barrett went 1-for-2 with a walk and scored a career-high two times. In fact, entering the game Barrett had scored just three times in her first 21 career games.
Barrett then saw the first at bats of her Big 12 career last Sunday and responded in a big way, finishing 4-for-8 in a doubleheader sweep of Texas Tech. Barrett went 2-for-4 in each game and totaled an RBI and two runs scored.
Barrett nearly tripled her career hit total (8-to-3) last week, while doubling her career RBI total (2-to-1) and nearly doubling her career runs scored total (5-to-3). Barrett also finished with three multi-hit games, the first of her career, while adding the first game-winning RBI of her career.