NU Wraps Up Non-Conference Travel at Creighton

The Nebraska softball team hits the road for the final time in non-conference play this week, as the Huskers travel to Omaha to face in-state rival Creighton on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Creighton Sports Complex.

Nebraska and Creighton will be meeting for the 107th time on Wednesday, as the Huskers lead the all-time series, 73-33. The Bluejays have won four of the last seven meetings, earning the series win in two of the past three seasons. In the last meeting, Creighton took advantage of several defensive miscues to rally from a 1-0, seventh-inning deficit and eliminate the Huskers from the 2007 NCAA Tournament with a 2-1 victory at Bowlin Stadium.

Fans can follow all of the action between the state’s two Division I softball programs, as Huskers.com will offer free audio with Nate Rohr handling the play-by-play call.

After the visit to Creighton, Nebraska hosts 12th-ranked Oklahoma this weekend in the Huskers’ first home Big 12 games of the season. After playing 21 of their first 25 games away from Lincoln, the two-game series with the Sooners kicks off a season-ending stretch that has Nebraska playing 16 of its final 21 games at Bowlin Stadium.

The Huskers are hoping more home games lead to more victories, as NU is 42-6 at Bowlin Stadium since the start of the 2006 season, including a 42-4 mark in regular-season contests. Nebraska has been just as good against the Big 12 Conference, posting a 15-2 mark the past two seasons, including a 6-1 record against ranked teams, a notable fact since Oklahoma is one of four conference foes traveling to Lincoln this season that have been ranked in the top 25.

Nebraska opened Big 12 play last weekend, dropping a pair of games in Austin to the Texas Longhorns. The Huskers were swept in their opening league series for the fourth consecutive year, but Nebraska is hopeful it can once again bounce back from the slow start, as NU rebounded to finish with at least a .500 record in conference play in each of the past three seasons they were swept.

A .500 finish in the Big 12 Conference would go a long way to securing Nebraska’s 14th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams in 2003, every Big 12 team with at least a .500 conference record has made the tournament, while four teams with losing records have been included in the field, including Texas last season.

In what will hopefully boost Nebraska’s chances for a solid conference finish, Associate Head Coach Lori Sippel will be in the dugout for the first time this season on Wednesday against Creighton.

Sippel, who also serves as head coach of Team Canada, missed the first 25 games of the Huskers’ season while training with the Canadians for the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing this summer. Sippel returned to Lincoln from Australia on Easter and is with the team for the remainder of the season.

Scouting the Creighton Bluejays
Creighton boasts a 19-10 record entering a Tuesday doubleheader with UMKC. The Bluejays have won four straight games and seven of their last eight, including a doubleheader sweep of Big 12 foe Iowa State and a 2-1 road win at two-time defending national champion Arizona. Overall, Nebraska and Creighton share three common opponents to this point in the season. Against Arizona State, BYU and Northern Colorado, NU posted a 5-2 record, while CU went 3-2.

Creighton and Nebraska match up well statistically, as the Huskers score 0.3 more runs per game, while the Bluejays allow 0.4 fewer runs per contest. NU boasts a higher average (.274-to-.249) and more speed (43-to-13 stolen bases), while Creighton has more than tripled Nebraska’s home run production (16-to-5).

Offensively, TJ Eadus is the only Bluejay hitting better than .300 as the senior catcher is batting .312 on the season and leads the team with six home runs and 16 RBIs. Four other Creighton starters are hitting at least .288, while Lincoln native Bailey Dawson leads the Jays with three triples and has also homered three times while tying Eadus for the team lead with 16 RBIs.

In the circle, ace Tara Oltman has picked up where she left off following an all-region freshman campaign last season. Oltman is the only Creighton pitcher with a winning record, as she is 13-4 on the season with a 1.06 ERA. Oltman has thrown 112.2 of the team’s 195.0 innings, striking out 122 and holding opposing hitters to a .193 average while tossing five of Creighton’s six shutouts. Amanda Hess (4-4, 4.20 ERA in 48.1 innings) and Emily Humpal (2-2, 5.97 ERA in 34.0 innings) round out the Bluejay staff.

A Look at the Series History
Nebraska has dominated the all-time series with Creighton, although recent meetings have been much closer. The Huskers lead the all-time series, 73-33, but the Bluejays have won the season series in two of the past three seasons, including their only season sweep ever in 2005. Creighton won last year’s series with a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over the Huskers in the NCAA Tournament at Bowlin Stadium. The win marked CU’s first postseason victory over Nebraska since 1988. Creighton has won four of the last seven meetings overall, but NU’s 73 victories over its in-state rival unofficially rank as the fourth-most victories over one team in NCAA history.

Last season, Creighton won the regular-season matchup in Lincoln, while the Huskers were victorious in Omaha. In the first game, Creighton scored four runs off NU starter Molly Hill in the first two innings, before Hill was perfect over the final 5.1 innings. Nebraska managed just two hits and one unearned run off CU ace Tara Oltman. Lincoln native Bailey Dawson did most of the damage for Creighton, finishing with three RBIs.

Nebraska rebounded with a 7-2 win in Omaha behind the strength of graduated seniors Devin Porter, Jamie Waldecker and Ashley DeBuhr. Porter finished with two RBIs, while Waldecker went 2-for-4 with a home run and a season-high five RBIs. In the circle, DeBuhr outdueled Oltman in a battle of Beatrice, Neb., pitchers. DeBuhr allowed two runs but struck out 11 in a complete-game effort, while Oltman was tagged for a then-career-high seven runs on eight hits.

The final meeting last year ended in dramatic fashion, as Creighton scored a pair of two-out runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to eliminate Nebraska from the NCAA Tournament. Haley Long gave Nebraska a 1-0 lead in the first inning with an RBI single and the score remained the same until the bottom of the seventh, when one Creighton hit, an error, a hit batter and two passed balls allowed the tying and winning runs to score.

Quick Hitters
The information below provides a quick glimpse of a few statistics and brief notes of interest to keep in mind as Nebraska travels to Omaha on Wednesday to face Creighton in the first of two meetings this season:

• The Huskers have scored in the first inning in 10 of their 13 victories this season. Scoring in the first inning has proven to be precursor to success for Nebraska, as they are 10-1 this season when doing so and 86-13 over the last five years.
• In an all-too-telling statistic, Nebraska is 13-0 when out-hitting its opponent this season, but is 0-12 when being out-hit or when the hits are even.
• The Huskers have been successful on 43-of-47 stolen base attempts (91 percent) through the first 25 games of this season. Nebraska has stolen 17 straight bases and 31 of its last 33 overall. NU has nearly matched last year’s stolen bases total, when NU swiped 51 bases in 71 tries (72 percent).
• Nebraska has proven to be a clutch hitting team so far this season, as 39 of Nebraska’s 86 RBIs have come with two outs (45 percent).
• Nebraska played its first - and only - one-run game of the season in a 2-1 loss to BYU on March 15. The Huskers had not played a one-run game through the first 17 games of the season, the longest season-opening streak without a one-run contest in school history. Each of the Huskers’ first three games last season were decided by a single run and through the first 25 games last season, NU had played in 13 one-run contests.
• Not only has NU played just a single one-run game this year, the Huskers have played 16 games decided by four runs or more. Last season, a total of 11 of Nebraska’s 57 games were decided by four or more runs.
• Nebraska is 266-4 since 2000 when leading after six innings of play. The Huskers had won 106 consecutive games when taking a lead into the seventh inning before losing a 9-6 lead at No. 4 Oklahoma last April.
• After playing its 600th all-time game in the month of March last Saturday against Texas, Nebraska now boasts an all-time record of 376-224 (.627) in the month, including a 10-6 mark this year, with all six losses coming to teams that have been ranked or received votes in the poll at some point this season.
• After opening its home schedule in dominating fashion with a four-game sweep of Northern Colorado, Nebraska has now won 43 of its last 47 regular-season home games dating back to 2005.
• Nebraska hitters went the entire game without striking out in game two of a March 9 doubleheader with Northern Colorado. That marked the first time since April 12, 2006 against South Dakota State that NU had not been struck out in a game, a streak totaling 92 games. The Huskers repeated the feat in the first game of a doubleheader with Southern Utah on March 17. The 2006 squad also had two games where it did not strike out a single time, although one of the games was against Division II foe Missouri Western.
• Both Haley Long and Darcy Rutherford have already produced enough RBIs this season to equal their career totals entering the year. Long has driven in 13 after also tallying 13 RBIs in her first season in 2007. Rutherford, meanwhile, has driven in three this season after totaling three RBIs in her first two seasons combined.

Guile Finding Her Groove
The Nebraska coaching staff has high expectations offensively for freshman Ashley Guile, a two-time, first-team NFCA High School All-American. Those expectations are highlighted by the fact that Guile has hit third, fourth or fifth in the lineup every game this season and after a relatively slow start, Guile has emerged of late.

Guile has hit safely in a career-best five straight games, while producing four multi-hit efforts in her last seven games after not producing a multi-hit contest through her first 18 career games. After going just 1-for-9 in a four-game series with Northern Colorado, Guile’s average was down to a season-low .214. Since then, Guile has hit .458 (11-for-24) to bring her average up to .299. Guile has also produced five RBIs during her recent hot streak, including a career-high three against Southern Utah on March 17.

Overall, Guile currently ranks fourth on the team in average, while leading the team with 15 walks and ranking second with a .448 on-base percentage.

Mullin Making Her Mark
Junior Meghan Mullin has excelled since moving from her role as NU’s leadoff hitter, to her more comfortable No. 2 spot in the lineup, where she hit last season while leading the team with a .318 average. Mullin’s emergence in the No. 2 spot has sparked NU to a 12-6 record, as she has picked up her play the past two weeks despite a hitless two games at Texas in the Huskers’ opening Big 12 series last weekend.

Mullin had 12 hits in the first seven games of Nebraska’s recently completed nine-game road trip dating back to March 14. Prior to the road trip, Mullin had recorded only 10 hits through her first 16 games. Mullin has also been able to use her bunting abilities to record more sacrifices, as she has totaled four in the last nine games. Mullin leads the team with seven sacrifices this season, after leading the Big 12 with 18 last season.