Nebraska-Creighton Set to Open TD Ameritrade Park

Date    Date    Opponent              Radio                 Video       TV                Time/Result

Tuesday        April 19                at Creighton (26-7, 9-1)        Husker Sports Network                     NET/CBS Sports Network    6:30 p.m.

Friday           April 22                at Oklahoma (26-10, 7-7)      Husker Sports Network Huskers.com                                        6:30 p.m.

Saturday        April 23                at Oklahoma                     Husker Sports Network Huskers.com                                        2 p.m.

Sunday         April 24                at Oklahoma                     Husker Sports Network Huskers.com    Fox College Sports Central 1 p.m.

Media Info

Live Radio: Select Husker Sports Network affiliates and for free on Huskers.com (affiliate list on page five of today's notes)

Live Stats: Huskers.com

Live Video: Free NET stream on Huskers.com

Television: NET (12) and CBS Sports Network (613 on DirecTV; 152 on Dish Network; 322 on Lincoln Time Warner Cable)

Probable Starting Pitchers

Day        Nebraska                             Creighton

Tuesday Tom Lemke, So., RHP (2-0, 5.65)       Ty Blach, Jr., LHP (6-0, 2.22)

This Week: Nebraska will be in action for the fourth day in a row when it travels to Omaha to face Creighton on Tuesday evening. The Huskers and Bluejays will be playing the first game at the new TD Ameritrade Park, which will annually host the College World Series each June. This is the 13th straight year Nebraska and Creighton have scheduled a three-game series dispersed throughout the season.

Following the midweek matchup, Nebraska will head south to take on Oklahoma in its fifth Big 12 series of the season.

Tickets: Tuesday night's game at TD Ameritrade Park has been sold out. The stadium has a capacity of 24,000.

Television: The Nebraska-Creighton game will be televised statewide on NET with a simulcast available nationally on the CBS Sports Network. The NET stream will also be available for free on netnebraska.org.

On the Radio: Fans across Nebraska and around the world can listen to Greg Sharpe, Lane Grindle and Jeff Culhane call all of the action on the Husker Sports Network - including KLIN 1400 AM in Lincoln, KFAM 1110 AM in Omaha - and on the Internet at Huskers.com. A complete list of Husker Sports Network affiliates can be found on page 5.

Preview: The opening game at TD Ameritrade Park will match up two teams who are riding momentum into this week. The Huskers (24-14, 5-7) have won three of their last four games, including a series win over Kansas State at Hawks Field. The Bluejays (26-7, 9-1) have won seven straight since they were defeated by Nebraska two weeks ago and have now cracked two national polls. This will be the second of three meetings between the in-state rivals this season, as NU and CU will play the series finale at TD Ameritrade Park on May 10.

For the first time this season, Kurt Farmer has taken over the team's batting average lead as he enters Tuesday night hitting at an impressive .353 clip. Farmer went 6-for-12 in the Kansas State series over the weekend, including his fifth three-hit game of the season in Monday's rubber match victory. The Columbus, Neb., native ranks eighth in the Big 12 in batting average, while Cody Asche is 13th at .329 and remains the league's home run leader after his 10th blast of the year in Monday's win over the Wildcats.

 The Huskers will travel to Norman, Okla., this weekend. Following the series win over K-State, Nebraska jumped three spots in the league standings to sixth. The Sooners qualified for the 2010 College World Series.

3 THINGS TO WATCH THIS WEEK

1.  Nebraska has played four straight one-run games over the past week. The Huskers have played 13 one-run contests this season and are 7-6 in those games.

2.  Cody Asche has hit five home runs in the past 10 games. He leads the Big 12 with 10 on the year, matching his 2010 season total.

3.  Kurt Farmer takes a six-game hitting streak into Tuesday night's game. The first baseman has three multiple-hit games in the past five contests.

Scouting Creighton

Creighton is 26-7 and takes a seven-game winning streak into Tuesday night's game. Over the last two weeks the Bluejays have swept Illinois State and Indiana State, while also defeating Kansas State in the last game at the CU Sports Complex. The run has put CU two national polls (No. 28 Collegiate Baseball, No. 29 NCBWA).

Creighton is led by eighth-year head coach Ed Servais, who is looking to improve on last year's 27-25 season as CU finished fourth in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Trever Adams continues to pace the Bluejay offense as he is hitting .397 with 10 homers and 44 RBIs. Alex Staehley is batting .325 with 23 RBIs, while Jimmy Swift is hitting .295 with 24 RBIs. Adams, Staehley and Swift have combined for 91 of the team's 176 RBIs.

On the mound, the Huskers will face possibly CU's best arm in Ty Blach. The left hander has produced a perfect 6-0 record in nine starts. He has a team-best 2.22 ERA by giving up 13 earned runs in 52.2 innings. Jonas Dufek has matched Blach's 6-0 mark and has a 2.35 ERA.

Series History: Nebraska leads the all-time series, 72-39-2, and has won 18-of-26 meetings since Mike Anderson took over as Nebraska's head coach in 2003.

After dropping the first two games of the series last year, Nebraska pounded out 26 hits and set a school record with 11 doubles in the series finale at Rosenblatt Stadium, a 21-5 Husker win. The last time Nebraska and Creighton met in Omaha not at Rosenblatt Stadium was March 23, 2004 when the Huskers won a 7-3 contest at the CU Sports Complex.

The largest crowd to see a Nebraska-Creighton game was on May 16, 2006 when 21,158 fans saw the Huskers down the Bluejays 4-1 at Rosenblatt Stadium.

Last Meeting (April 5, 2011):

Tyler Niederklein carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning and Cody Asche hit his seventh home run of the season as Nebraska took a 5-0 lead on its way to an 8-5 victory over Creighton at Hawks Field on April 5.

Niederklein improved to 4-1 with the win, as he did not allow a hit until there was one down in the sixth inning. His 5.1 innings without giving up a hit was the longest a Husker pitcher had taken a no-hitter since Johnny Dorn threw 7.2 innings of no-hit ball in a 10-2 victory over Creighton on March 29, 2005.

Bryan Peters went 2-for-3 with three RBIs, including a key 2-RBI single in the sixth inning to put Nebraska ahead 7-3 after Creighton had cut a five-run deficit to 5-3. It was the second straight two-run inning for the Huskers after Asche hit a 2-run homer to right field in the bottom of the fifth.

Pierce picked up his second save of the season as he entered the game with a 7-4 lead and two outs in the top of the eighth inning. He walked the bases loaded with no outs in the ninth but gave up only a sacrifice fly before retiring the final two batters.

Niederklein, a sophomore from Omaha, Neb., threw a season-high 98 pitches and allowed three runs on three hits. All the run production came on one pitch as he gave up a three-run homer to Trever Adams in the top of the sixth and then allowed a triple before he was relieved by Nick Dolsky. The sophomore walked a pair and struck out Chance Ross before he was taken out for Tom Lemke, who faced a 2-out, bases loaded situation and struck out Joey Bowens to end the threat.

Lemke, Pierce and freshman Tyler King combined to give up only one hit and two runs over the final three innings as Nebraska improved to 15-0 on the season when leading after six.

The Husker offense struck early by taking a 2-0 lead in the first on a Kash Kalkowski RBI double to left and a sacrifice fly from Kurt Farmer. Kalkowski, who finished 2-for-4, reached base safely for the 12th straight game. He added a bloop RBI single into short center in the third to bring home Asche following a leadoff single and give the Huskers a 3-0 advantage.

Nebraska successfully put the leadoff man on base in four of its eight at-bats on the night. Dating back to last game, the Huskers have had the leadoff man reach safely in 11 of the past 16 innings.

The Huskers scored four of their runs in the fifth and sixth innings, as Peters started the fifth with a walk before Asche sent an 0-1 pitch into the right field terrace for his seventh home run of the season. A junior from O'Fallon, Mo., Asche has hit all seven home runs in the past 16 games while producing 23 RBIs during that stretch. His 2-for-3 night also gives him a team-leading 16 multiple-hit games this year.

Peters guided NU to another 2-run inning in the sixth when he came to the plate with Kale Kiser and Khiry Cooper on second and third. With the infield drawn in, Peters bounced a single over CU second baseman Alex Staehely to score two and put the Huskers on top 7-3. After the Bluejays scored one in the eighth, the Huskers successfully executed a squeeze in the bottom half as Cooper raced down the line to score as Peters sac bunted down the first base line.

Leading Off

-Six Omaha natives will be playing the first game at TD Ameritrade Park in their hometown (Matt Freeman, Casey Hauptman, Tyler Niederklein, Michael Pritchard, Dylan Vogt, Chris Williams)

-Kale Kiser has been the most successful Husker in the NU-CU series, as he carries a .389 batting average (7-for-19) during his career against the Bluejays.

-Nebraska has played four consecutive one-run games, winning three of those contests. The Huskers are 7-6 in one-run games this season.

-The Huskers pitching staff did not offer any walks in Nebraska's 5-4 win Monday against K-State. It marked the third this season the Husker hurles had not given any free passes.

-Nick Miller made his first career start in Monday's game and came up with an RBI single in the second inning of the 5-4 Husker win.

-With Kash Kalkowski's ninth-inning game-winning single Monday, the Huskers have now had four walk-off victories this season, including two against UCLA.

-Nebraska's 24-14 start is its best since 2008 when it hosted an NCAA Regional. The 38-game start is also one game ahead of pace of the 2007 team that qualified for the NCAA Tournament.  

-Three Huskers - all sophomores - have started all 38 games this season in first baseman Kurt Farmer, shortstop Chad Christensen and second baseman Bryan Peters.

-Five Huskers have at least 10 multiple hit games this season, led by Cody Asche with 17. Kash Kalkowski had his 13th multiple hit game of the year with his walk-off single in Monday's win over KSU.

-In its last two games against Missouri Valley Conference opponents, Nebraska had four sacrifice hits (Creighton on April 5, Wichita State on April 12). Before that, the Huskers had not had four sac hits in a game since Feb. 20, 2009 against Louisiana-Lafayette. The Huskers rank 30th nationally in sacrifice bunts (34) and 33rd in sacrifice flies (33).

-Nebraska scored two runs in the first inning of the last two Tuesday wins over Creighton and Wichita State. Those mark the third and fourth times this season the Huskers have had more than one run in the first inning. In those games, the Huskers have put the leadoff man on base in 10 of 17 innings, scoring in six of those frames.

-Nebraska ranks second in the Big 12 in team fielding with a .977 percentage. The Huskers suffered a four-error game April 2 against Oklahoma State that led to nine unearned runs, but have only one in the past four games. NU has only had multiple errors four times in the past 29 games. The infield, anchored by sophomores Chad Christensen (SS) and Bryan Peters (2B), has led NU in turning 19 groundball double plays.   

Nebraska's current .977 field percentage would be the program's best mark since 2006.

-Nebraska has had 11 come-from-behind victories this season, including three in a row in wins over North Dakota and Northern Colorado from March 20-23. The Huskers have 136 come-from-behind wins under Mike Anderson since 2003. NU had 10 come-from-behind wins last season, including overcoming a 10-run deficit against North Dakota on March 30 and a four-run deficit against Southeast Missouri State on May 8.

-Nebraska has thrived in the middle innings this season, scoring 70 percent of its runs from the third to seventh innings.  The Huskers' have had the most success in the third with 45 runs in that frame.

-The Huskers are 90-11 dating back to 2008 when they out-hit an opponent and have won 90 percent of their games since 2003 when out-hitting an opponent. Last season, NU was 25-4 when out-hitting opponents. The Huskers are also 32-10 when reaching double-figures in hits, but just 9-27 when held to nine hits or less.

The Huskers are 17-1 this season when outhitting the opposition, with the only loss coming March 27 at Texas Tech.

-Nebraska's bullpen has done impressive work in preserving leads this season, as the Huskers are 19-0 when leading after six innings.