Huskers Travel to Texas to Open Big 12 Play

The Nebraska softball team travels to Austin, Texas, this weekend to open Big 12 Conference play with a two-game series against the 15th-ranked Texas Longhorns at McCombs Field.

Fans can follow the Huskers’ conference-opening series in a variety of ways. A free radio broadcast of both games will be available on Huskers.com, with veteran softball play-by-play announcer Nate Rohr calling all of the action. Free live video of both games will also be available through TexasSports.com.

As has been the case for the past several seasons, the Huskers open conference play on the road against a tough opponent. Nebraska is opening league play on the road for seventh straight season, and the Huskers have lost their last five conference openers.

Nebraska has drawn a ranked opponent in its opening Big 12 series five times in the last six seasons including this weekend’s matchup with Texas. Since 2005, every conference-opening opponent the Huskers have faced went on to finish in the top four of the final league standings, including three squads that finished as Big 12 regular-season champions.

Overall, six Big 12 teams are ranked in this week’s USA Softball/ESPN.com top-25 poll, while Texas Tech is receiving the third-most votes among unranked teams. The 15th-ranked Longhorns are 24-8 this season with eight victories over ranked teams, while four of their seven losses have come to top-25 opponents.

The Huskers are 1-4 against top-25 teams this season, including a 1-3 mark against top-10 opponents. NU defeated then-No. 8 Georgia Tech, 2-0, in its first game of the season against a ranked opponent, but the Huskers have since lost four straight to ranked teams, a streak they will look to snap this weekend.

Nebraska will also be looking to snap a few more streaks in Texas. The Huskers are 0-8 in true road games in 2010 and have lost 10 consecutive road games dating back to last year. NU is also looking for its first win at Texas since 2004, after losing its last four games at McCombs Field.

The Huskers already snapped one streak this week. NU ended a seven-game losing streak in one-run games with a 4-3 victory over Wisconsin in game two on Wednesday. Nebraska is 1-6 in one-run games in 2010, while nine of the Huskers’ 13 losses have come by two runs or less.

Despite all of the close losses, Nebraska has won four straight, as the Huskers have moved four games above .500 for the first time this season. After posting a winning month of February, the Huskers are 8-6 in March, with three setbacks to ranked teams and all six losses coming to teams who made the 2009 NCAA Tournament.

The Husker offense has continued to make strides, as has the defense. NU is batting .295 as a team this season while averaging more than five runs per game. Defensively, NU has committed only 10 errors in its last 13 games, and four of those errors came in one game.

The Huskers should also have confidence in the circle this weekend, as junior right-hander Robin Mackin is 1-1 against ranked teams. In two complete games against top-10 opponents, Mackin has allowed only one run and five hits, while posting a 0.50 ERA and a .111 opponent batting average.

Scouting the 15th-Ranked Texas Longhorns (24-8)
Texas is ranked 15th in the country and enters the first weekend of Big 12 play with a 24-8record. Texas and Nebraska share three common opponents this season in No. 11 Arizona State, UTEP and UTSA. The Huskers went 1-3 against that trio, defeating UTEP (6-4) and falling twice at Arizona State (1-0 and 7-1) and surrendering a two-run lead with two outs in the seventh inning in an eight-inning loss to UTSA (10-9). Texas posted a 4-0 record against that trio, including one-run victories over the Sun Devils (1-0) and UTSA (3-2).

Offensively, Texas leads the Big 12 with 47 home runs. The Longhorns are slugging a league-best .538 while averaging 5.5 runs per game. Six Longhorns are batting better than .300, led by Taylor Hoagland. A freshman, Hoagland is hitting .407 and carries a school-record 19-game hitting streak. She has also homered four times, as 10 Longhorns have homered more than once this season. Shelby Savony leads the team with eight home runs in only 52 at bats, as she has started only 16 games and is batting just .212. Lexy Bennett is one of four Longhorns with six home runs and leads UT with six doubles and 20 RBIs, while Tallie Thrasher has six home runs and 19 RBIs in only 49 at bats and 11 starts.

In the circle, a pair of freshmen have seen the majority of the action for Texas. Blair Luna has burst onto the scene, as she is 13-4 this season and leads the league with a .124 opponent batting average and an average of 11.4 strikeouts per seven innings. In a team-high 102.1 innings, Luna has struck out 167 while allowing only 43 hits. She had been the league leader in ERA but dropped to second with a mark of 1.23 after allowing eight earned runs in 8.1 innings this week. Freshman Kim Bruins is 6-3 on the season with a 3.46 ERA in 62.2 innings. She has struck out 35 and walked 22. Senior Erin Tresselt (5-1, 4.20 ERA in 48.1 innings) rounds out the Texas staff.

Husker History vs. Texas
Nebraska leads the all-time series with Texas, 18-15. Every meeting has come in the Big 12 era, as Texas’ first season of varsity softball came in 1997, the second year of the Big 12 Conference. Husker Head Coach Rhonda Revelle and Longhorn Head Coach Connie Clark have been in the dugout for each of the 33 all-time meetings.

Texas has won eight of the last 11 meetings, although Nebraska swept the regular-season series last year, before the Longhorns won the postseason matchup at the Big 12 Championship. Overall, the regular-season series has been a sweep every season since 2003, with the Huskers winning both games in 2004, 2007 and 2009 and Texas taking two wins in 2005, 2006 and 2008.

Nebraska is 7-7 all-time in Austin, but the Huskers have lost four straight games at McCombs Field. The Huskers are opening their conference schedule at Texas for the third time in five seasons. The series has historically been close, as 22 of the 33 all-time meetings have been decided by two runs or less, including 12 one-run contests.

Last year, the Huskers swept the 20th-ranked Longhorns in Lincoln by scores of 2-1 and 5-2. In game one, Molly Hill retired 15 of the final 17 batters she faced while allowing one run in a six-hitter. Crystal Carwile gave Nebraska the win with a squeeze bunt to break a 1-1 tie in the fifth inning. In game two, Kelli Linke drove in all five Husker runs, while Hill earned the complete-game victory. In the postseason meeting, the Longhorns finally got to Hill and eliminated the Huskers with a 10-5 win. The hits were even at nine apiece and Nebraska slugged two home runs on back-to-back shots from Julie Brechtel and Heidi Foland.

Nebraska (157 wins) and Texas (134) rank second and third, respectively, in Big 12 Conference victories.

Quick Hitters
The information below provides a quick glimpse of a few statistics and brief notes of interest as the Huskers open Big 12 Conference play at 15th-ranked Texas this weekend.

• NU is 401-237 (.629) all-time in the month of March. Nebraska is 8-6 in March this season after posting an 18-3 record in the month last season. The Huskers have posted a winning month of March in each of the last 15 seasons dating back to 1994.
• The Huskers are 0-8 in true road games this season and Nebraska has lost 10 straight road games dating back to losses at No. 14 Missouri and No. 18 Tennessee in its final two road games last season. During the 10-game road losing streak, the Huskers’ opponent has been ranked in the top 20 four times, while eight of the 10 games came against 2009 NCAA Tournament teams (only exception are two games at New Mexico State in 2010).
• Nebraska has outscored its opponents 120-33 in its 17 victories, winning by an average of more than five runs per game. In the Huskers’ 13 losses, Nebraska has only been outscored 66-33, losing by an average of 2.5 runs per game. The average dips to only 1.7 runs per game when eliminating the Huskers’ only two losses by more than four runs this season (a 7-1 loss at No. 10 Arizona State and an 11-3 loss to No. 7 Alabama).
• Nebraska is 1-6 this season in one-run games, winning its first one-run game on Wednesday against Wisconsin.
• Three Huskers have already hit at least four home runs this season. Last season, five Huskers hit four or more home runs after only one player homered four times in 2008 and no player hit four home runs in 2007.
• Nebraska tied the school record by turning three double plays at No. 10 Arizona State on March 14.
• Junior second baseman Julie Brechtel has not committed an error in 23 straight games, as she is perfect in 70 chances this season. The 23-game errorless streak is the second-longest streak of Brechtel’s career, as she posted a 32-game errorless streak last season. Overall, Brechtel has posted five separate 10-game stretches without an error in her career.
• Senior shortstop Whitney Barrett has not committed an error in her last 17 games, after committing nine errors in her first 13 games this season.
• The Nebraska pitching staff has struck out 227 batters in only 195.0 innings this season. The Huskers’ average of 8.1 strikeouts per seven innings leads the Big 12 Conference, while the 227 total strikeouts rank second behind an Oklahoma State staff that has only struck out nine more batters in 29.0 more innings.
• The Huskers’ 4-3 win over Wisconsin in game two of Wednesday’s doubleheader marked Rhonda Revelle’s 675th career victory as a head coach.
• Junior Heidi Foland has 97 career hits entering play this weekend, while classmate Julie Brechtel has 93 career hits. Junior Robin Mackin has already reached the 100-hit plateau this season, counting statistics from her two seasons at Fresno State in 2006 and 2007.

Nebraska in Big 12 Conference Openers
Nebraska is 7-7 all-time in Big 12 Conference opening games, including a 4-7 mark on the road. The Huskers have not won a league opener since 2004, which is also the last time NU claimed a conference championship. Last year, Nebraska earned a split at 19th-ranked Texas A&M with a 3-2 nine-inning win in game two. That victory snapped a streak that had seen the Huskers be swept in their opening conference series for four straight years. The two-game series with 15th-ranked Texas this weekend will mark the fourth time in the past five seasons that the Huskers open their conference season on the road against a top-20 team.

While the league opener is only one game, history shows that the first conference game of the season can provide a boost to Nebraska’s finish in the final league standings. When winning their first Big 12 game, the Huskers have never finished lower than fourth in the final standings, while capturing three league titles and averaging 13 league wins per season. When Nebraska has lost its conference opener, the Huskers have only finished as high as fourth once (second in 2006) while wining an average of only nine games.

Mackin Excels Against Top Competition
Nebraska junior right-hander Robin Mackin has excelled against the top competition this season, a trend the Huskers hope will continue this weekend at 15th-ranked Texas. Mackin has made two starts against ranked teams this season and three starts against teams from the six major BCS conferences (ACC, Big 12, BIG EAST, Big Ten, SEC, Pac-10).

Mackin is 1-1 against ranked teams, as she tossed a two-hit shutout against No. 8 Georgia Tech on Feb. 26 and threw a three-hitter and allowed only one run in a 1-0 loss at 10th-ranked Arizona State on March 13. She has surrendered only five hits in 14.0 innings against ranked teams while striking out 12.

Against BCS Conference schools, Mackin is just 1-2, but the right-hander has posted excellent numbers. In 20.0 innings, Mackin has allowed only two earned runs while striking out 17. BCS opponents are hitting just .147 against her and four of the 10 hits she has allowed have been infield singles.

Guile in a Groove
Ashley Guile is enjoying a tremendous sophomore season after redshirting last year. Guile is batting .395 on the year with team-high totals of nine doubles, 20 walks and 27 RBIs. Guile has been especially good over the past two weeks, going 7-for-12 with three doubles and seven RBIs to help lead Nebraska to four straight wins. She has hit safely and produced an RBI in each of the last four games, while adding a pair of walks and a hit-by-pitches. Overall, Guile has reached base safely in 11 of her last 13 plate appearances, including six straight.

On the year, Guile ranks fourth in the Big 12 in on-base percentage (.533), fifth in doubles (9) and walks (20) and 10th in batting average (.395).

Foland Already Setting Season Bests
Heidi Foland is enjoying an outstanding junior season, as she is batting .398 with six doubles, eight home runs and 19 RBIs while ranking among the top 10 players in the Big 12 in six offensive categories. A three-year starter, Foland has set career highs this season in runs (32), hits (41) and home runs (8), and she has tied her career high in doubles (6) and needs only one more RBI to tie her career high. After homering six times in 102 career games and 242 at bats entering this year, Foland homered seven times through 19 games and 63 at bats in 2010.