Huskers Take on No. 23 Texas A&M

On Tap: The Nebraska baseball team hits the road to begin its final road trip of the regular season, traveling to No. 23 Texas A&M this weekend. The Huskers and Aggies will play on Friday and Saturday evening at 6:35 p.m. with the finale set for 1:05 p.m. on Sunday.

Nebraska at No. 23 Texas A&M
Friday, April 17 - 6:35 p.m.
Saturday, April 18 - 6:35 p.m.
Sunday, April 19 - 1:05 p.m.

Media Info
Radio: IMG Husker Sports Network and for free on the Internet at Huskers.com
Video: Free Live Video on Huskers.com
Live Stats:  Huskers.com 

Probable Starting Pitchers
Fri 
NU-Sean Yost, R-Fr., RHP (1-3, 8.04 ERA) 
TAMU-Brooks Raley, So. LHP (6-1, 2.13 ERA)

Sat. 
NU-Jordan Roualdes, Jr., LHP (4-3, 6.80 ERA) 
TAMU-Ross Hales, Fr., LHP (3-1, 3.75 ERA)

Sun. 
NU-TBA 
TAMU-Barret Loux, So., RHP (2-1, 4.78 ERA)

This weekend’s trip to College Station, Texas, begins a seven-game road trip for the Huskers (17-18-1, 4-11 Big 12), who are coming off an 8-5 victory over Iowa Tuesday night. Jeff Tezak, Adam Bailey and Cody Asche all had three hits in the win over the Hawkeyes. Tezak matched his season best with four RBIs, while Asche scored four of NU’s eight runs to snap a nine-game losing streak.

Friday’s series opener starts an important stretch featuring trips to Texas A&M and Kansas over the next two weekends with a mid-week contest at Creighton sandwiched in between. The Huskers enter the weekend in 10th place in the Big 12 race and look to pick up their first road series win in three tries to get back into the race for next month’s Big 12 Championship in Oklahoma City. 

The Aggies (22-14, 8-7 Big 12) picked up an impressive 7-3 victory over No. 3 Rice in Houston on Tuesday after losing four of their previous five contests. Texas A&M, which was picked to win the league and was ranked No. 1 in the preseason, is currently in sixth place in the Big 12 standings, but also just a game out of second place entering this weekend’s action.

Radio: Fans across Nebraska can listen to Matt Coatney and Lane Grindle call the action on the Husker Sports Network stations, including KLIN 1400 AM in Lincoln, KFAB 1110 AM in Omaha and KRVN 880 AM in Lexington and on the Internet at Huskers.com. Live video of all three games this weekend will be carried on Huskers.com

Scouting Texas A&M
Under fourth-year Coach Rob Childress, the Aggies come into the weekend with a 22-14 mark and are ranked as high as 23rd in the national polls this week. Texas A&M is 8-7 in the league entering the weekend, but all of those conference losses have come away from Olsen Field. The Aggies have played a challenging non-conference slate with games against Rice, Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine among others. In the league, the Aggies still have series against Oklahoma and Texas, who join Baylor as the top three squads in the race.
The Aggies feature one of the Big 12’s top two-way performers in sophomore Brooks Raley. The left-hander is 6-1 in eight starts with 61 strikeouts over 55 innings of work. In addition, he also leads Texas A&M with a .364 average, 27 walks and a league-high 20 stolen bases. Freshman Ross Hales (3-1, 3.75 ERA) and Barret Loux (2-1, 4.78 ERA) round out the weekend rotation this weekend.
In addition to Raley, Caleb Shofner (.336 with 29 runs scored) and Brodie Greene (.328 with 10 stolen bases) provide the ability to get on base. The Aggies also returned a pair of All-Big 12 performers in Luke Anderson (.255-7-32) and Kyle Colligan (.232-5-15) who have been in the everyday lineup.
Nebraska holds a 21-19 lead all-time since the series began in 1989, as the teams met once before the start of Big 12 action.  The Huskers are just 5-19 all-time in College Station, picking up a series win in 2005. Childress, who served as NU’s pitching coach from 1998 to 2005, is 3-7 all-time against Nebraska since coming to College Station.

Last Time Out
Jeff Tezak matched his season-high with four RBIs, lifting the Nebraska baseball team to an 8-5 victory over Iowa Tuesday night at Hawks Field. Tezak went 3-for-4 on the night, as the Huskers rapped out 11 hits. The senior switch hitter had an RBI single in the first inning before his two-run single helped stake the Huskers to a 5-0 lead in the third inning. He later drove in his fourth run on a RBI single in the seventh after Iowa pulled to within 5-4.

Tezak was one of three Huskers to enjoy three-hit evenings to help snap a nine-game losing streak. Adam Bailey went 3-for-3 with a pair of RBIs, while Cody Asche tied a season high with three hits and scored a career-high four times.
While Nebraska enjoyed a balanced attack, the Huskers also received strong performances on the mound. Michael Mariot took a shutout into the fourth, while four relievers combined for 5.2 innings of relief without allowing an earned run.  Erik Bird (1-1) got the win with 1.1 innings of relief, while Nate Kerkhoff (four strikeouts in 1.1 perfect innings), Erik Anderson (1.2 shutout frames) and Mike Nesseth didn’t allow run from the fifth until the ninth. Nesseth went the final 1.1 innings, fanning two for his second save of the season.

Leading Off
 ?-The Nebraska and Texas A&M baseball staffs are very familiar to one another. Along with Childress, assistant coach Jeremy Talbot was a volunteer assistant at Nebraska in 1999, while volunteer assistant coach Justin Seely played at Nebraska in 2001 and 2002 and served as a volunteer assistant for two years (2006-07).  In addition, athletic trainer Josh Cohen (2004-05) and video coordinator Erik Pulverenti (2002-05) also worked with the Husker program.

?-Nebraska’s eight runs against Iowa on Tuesday night  was the Huskers’ highest total since putting 11 on No. 11 Oklahoma on March 29.

?-One area that senior Jeff Tezak has excelled in this season is plate discipline. Tezak not only leads the Huskers in walks, but has struck out eight times to lead all Big 12 players in fewest strikeouts per at-bat. Tezak also paces all league players in walk-to-strikeout ratio entering this weekend’s action.  Tezak is now sixth in the Big 12 with a .458 on-base percentage entering Tuesday’s game against Iowa.

?-Four former Huskers are currently on Major League Baseball rosters. The newest Husker Major Leaguer is pitcher Brian Duensing, who is pitching for the Minnesota Twins, became the 27th Husker to reach the Majors when he made his debut on Friday night against the Chicago White Sox. Duensing, who pitched at NU from 2002 to 2005, is the first Husker from Omaha to reach the Majors since Bill McGuire in the late 1980s.   Houston Astros outfielder Darin Erstad is in his 14th season in the Major Leagues and trails only Stan Bahnsen (1966-82) among Huskers in terms of time in the Major Leagues, while Alex Gordon and Joba Chamberlain are each in their third season in the Majors.

?-Third baseman Cody Asche has emerged as one of the Huskers’ top freshmen. He is hitting .372 on the season and ranks fourth on the team with 19 RBIs. Of his 19 RBIs, 12 have come in two-out situations.  Asche has been on a tear recently, hitting .476 with a homer and nine RBIs over his last 10 contests. Asche’s error in the series finale against Texas on April 11 was his first in his last 12 contests and just his second error since Feb. 21.

?-Tyler Farst had reached safely in each of his first 32 games this season until the series finale against Texas. Farst who is hitting .331, has reached in 33 of his 34 contests this season and has two 11-game hit streaks during the year.

?-Nebraska has shown the ability to score runs in bunches. The Huskers have already plated five runs in an inning 11 times, easily eclipsing the team’s entire 2008 total of seven in 59 contests. Here is a look at the Huskers’ biggest innings this spring.

?-Nebraska already has 10 come-from-behind wins among its 17 victories, including six wins where the Huskers had to overcome at least a three-run deficit.
The seven-run comeback against Northern Colorado on March 24 equaled the Huskers’ largest comeback since the 2000 season, when NU overcame a 10-0 deficit against Iowa State. NU has 109 come-from-behind wins under Mike Anderson since 2003.

?-Nebraska hitters have taken a beating this season, as the Huskers have been hit by 54 pitches to rank second in the Big 12.  One look at the Husker career chart also shows the Huskers’ propensity to get hit by pitches. DJ Belfonte has been hit 40 times in his career, including 10 times in 2008, to move into sole possession of second place on Nebraska’s career list. He is joined by Nick Sullivan (34, fourth) and Jake Mort (32, sixth) on NU’s career list.

?-Jed Hanson has made the most of his limited action, belting three homers in three straight games and is slugging  at a 1.444 clip in nine at-bats. The last Husker to homer in three straight games was Luke Gorsett in 2006, while the only other Husker to accomplish the feat under Mike Anderson was Daniel Bruce in 2004. The last Husker to homer in four consecutive games was Jed Morris, who had a streak of five straight games with a homer in 2002.

?-With his homer against Northern Colorado on March 25, Jed Hanson became the first Husker to homer in his first career at-bat in over a decade.  Hanson had not appeared in NU’s first 23 games before homering on the first pitch he saw as a Husker.

?-Jeff Tezak’s two-homer day at Oklahoma on March 29 marked the first by a Husker this season and the first since Jake Opitz had two homers against Eastern Illinois in the 2008 NCAA Lincoln Regional.

?-Nebraska’s five homers in the series opener at No. 11 Oklahoma on March 30 marked NU’s highest single-game total since belting five against Nebraska-Kearney on April 19, 2006, and the most by the Huskers in a Big 12 game since hitting five homers against Texas A&M on April 22, 2000.

?-When Cody Asche and Jed Hanson belted back-to-back homers in the nightcap against No. 11 Oklahoma on March 30, it marked the first time it had happened for the Huskers since Andy Gerch and Jake Opitz accomplished the feat on May 12, 2007.

?-Nebraska has shown a flare for the dramatic in 2009, winning five games in its last at-bat, including four runs in the bottom of the eighth in a 14-13 win over Northern Colorado on March 24. NU also scored six times in the bottom of the eighth in a 14-12 win over Missouri State on Feb. 27 and five times in the bottom of the eighth in a 10-6 win over North Dakota on Feb. 25.

?-The Huskers have reached double figures in runs 10 times this season after accomplishing the feat 12 times in 2008.

?-The Huskers are 92-1 under Mike Anderson when reaching double figures in runs, including 64-0 since the start of the 2005 season.

?-NU is 17-5-1 when getting at least 10 hits this season, but winless in 13 games without reaching double figures in hits.

?-NU has enjoyed a youth movement in 2009, as 16 players have seen their first action as Huskers this season.  The group includes nine freshmen, five junior college transfers and a pair of sophomores who did not play because of injuries the past two years.  

?-Nebraska is 1-1-1 this year in extra frames and 15-9-2 (.615) in extra-inning contests since 2003.

?-Nebraska set a school and Big 12 record in the opener against UL-Lafayette, as five Husker pitchers combined for 22 strikeouts, breaking the school and conference mark of 21 set at Iowa State on April 18, 1999. Three of the top five strikeout performances have been under pitching coach Eric Newman over the past two seasons.

?-Nebraska is the only Big 12 program to win at least 40 games in eight of the past 10 years, including three 50-win seasons.

?-Since the NCAA went to the 64-team format in 1999, Nebraska has made nine NCAA Tournament appearances, which ties for seventh nationally in that time period. The only teams to earn more bids than Nebraska in that span are Cal State Fullerton, Florida State, Miami, Oral Roberts, Rice and Texas.

?-Nebraska has won 132 of its last 133 games when taking a lead into the ninth inning and is 132-0-1 in that stretch dating back to the 2005 season. NU is 227-3-1 (.985) when leading after eight innings under Mike Anderson.

?-The Huskers are 48-2 dating back to last season when they out-hit an opponent, as Saturday’s loss to Kansas State marked only the second time in the last two years that NU has out-hit an opponent, but lost the game. The Huskers have won over 90 percent of their games since 2003 when out-hitting an opponent.