Huskers Face Iowa State in Home-and-Home Series

The 14th-ranked Nebraska softball team begins a busy final week of the regular season with a home-and-home series with Iowa State this week. The Huskers will host the Cyclones Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Bowlin Stadium, before traveling to Ames, Iowa, to face Iowa State on Thursday at 3 p.m.
Fans can purchase tickets for Tuesday’s game by visiting the Bowlin Stadium ticket office on game day, located at the main entrance behind home plate, by calling 1-800-8-BIG-RED or by visiting Huskers.com. Fans unable to make it out to Bowlin Stadium can follow all of the action live online. A free video and audio broadcast will be available on Huskers.com, with veteran softball play-by-play announcer Nate Rohr calling all of the action.
Following the home-and-home series with Iowa State, the Huskers close the regular season this weekend by hosting Oklahoma State on Saturday and Sunday at Bowlin Stadium. On Sunday night, the NCAA will announce the NCAA Tournament field and regional hosts live on ESPNU at 9 p.m. (Central).
Nebraska is in excellent shape to earn an at-large bid to the postseason, but the Huskers are hoping to regain some momentum in the final week of regular-season play. Nebraska has lost its last three games, posting a three-game losing streak for the only time this season. While losing is frustrating in itself, the Huskers have lost each game in agonizing fashion. The streak started with a 5-0 loss to Texas Tech on May 1, when Nebraska failed to capitalize on multiple scoring chances before the Red Raiders broke open a scoreless tie with a five-run seventh inning.
Last Saturday at No. 20 Baylor, the Huskers found themselves in another scoreless game in the seventh inning. This time, Nebraska was the team to break the scoreless tie, as an RBI double from senior Julie Brechtel gave the Huskers a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh inning. But the lead would not hold up, as Baylor scored twice in the bottom of the frame to earn a 2-1 walk-off victory. The next day, the game was again scoreless heading into the seventh inning. Nebraska left a pair of runners in scoring position in the top of the frame, before the Lady Bears pulled off another walk-off victory with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh.
Overall, Nebraska has been agonizingly close to earning a win in several of its recent losses. The Huskers have either led or been tied in the seventh inning in five of their last eight losses. Overall, in Nebraska’s nine Big 12 losses this season, the Huskers have led in the seventh inning twice, been tied in the seventh inning four more times and brought the tying run to the plate in their final at bat in six of the nine losses.
The Huskers hope to get back on track against an Iowa State team with a losing record. The two games with ISU end NU’s streak of 10 consecutive Big 12 games against teams that have been ranked this season.
Scouting the Iowa State Cyclones (21-24, 3-11 Big 12)
Iowa State enters Tuesday’s game with a 21-24 overall record, including a 3-11 mark in the Big 12 Conference. The Cyclones are the only Big 12 team with a losing record this season, but they are ahead of Kansas in the conference standings. Two of Iowa State’s three league victories have come in the past six games, including a victory over No. 20 Baylor. The Cyclones are 4-12 on the road this season, including 0-6 in conference action, while Iowa State is 11-9 at home, including a 3-5 mark in league play.

Offensively, the Cyclones are batting .277 as a team and averaging 4.8 runs per game. Although both of those numbers are respectable, Iowa State is last in the league in batting average and next-to-last in runs per game. Tori Torrescano has been the Cyclones’ top hitter this season. Torrescano is batting a team-high .333 with 12 doubles, 10 home runs and 32 RBIs. She has teamed with Erica Miller for a powerful combination in the middle of the ISU order. Miller is batting .314 with five doubles, 11 home runs and 40 RBIs. Together, the duo has combined to hit 21 of Iowa State’s 32 home runs this season and produced nearly 40 percent of the team’s RBIs.

In the circle, Iowa State ranks last in the league in ERA (4.63) and runs allowed per game (5.3). In conference games, the Cyclones’ ERA rises to 7.51, and Iowa State is allowing 8.2 runs per game through its first 14 league games. Rachel Zabriskie has been Iowa State’s top pitcher, as she has started 32 of the Cyclones’ 45 games, including 13 of ISU’s 14 Big 12 games. Zabriskie is 14-16 on the season with a 3.99 ERA and 187 strikeouts in 177.1 innings. Breeanna Holliday (3-3, 4.81 ERA in 43.2 IP), Lauren Kennewell (2-3, 6.67 ERA in 42.0 IP) and Torrescano (2-2, 7.12 ERA in 19.2 IP) have split the innings behind Zabriskie.

Husker History vs. Iowa State
Nebraska leads the all-time series with Iowa State, 64-19, but the Cyclones have fared much better of late. Last year, Iowa State swept the season series for the first time ever. Overall, ISU has won the last three meetings, which ties for its longest win streak in the series. Despite Iowa State’s success the past two seasons, Nebraska has still won 19 of the last 24 meetings, including 14 in a row from 1999 to 2005. Rhonda Revelle is 35-12 in her career against Iowa State, including a 5-5 mark against sixth-year Iowa State Head Coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler. Nebraska leads the all-time series in Lincoln, 28-6, and the Huskers had been 12-0 against the Cyclones since Bowlin Stadium opened, before Iowa State won the past two meetings. Nebraska also owns a 21-8 record in Ames.

Last year, Iowa State won both meetings. In the first meeting in Ames, Iowa State earned a 9-5 win on a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning from Sydni Jones. There were four total home runs hit in the game, including back-to-back home runs from Julie Brechtel and Brooke Thomason to tie the game at 5-5 in the top of the sixth inning. Ashley Guile also finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Ashley Hagemann took the loss, allowing six runs (five earned) on only four hits in 4.1 innings. The next week in Lincoln, Robin Mackin walked five batters in the first inning, as Iowa State used a four-run first to post a 6-3 victory. Thomason homered in the loss, as did Gabby Banda, as Nebraska out-hit the Cyclones 6-3. Overall, the Huskers have homered in each of the last 10 meetings dating back to the first meeting of the 2006 season.

Individually, several Husker hitters have excelled against Iowa State. Brechtel is 6-for-19 (.316) in her career against Iowa State with a double, two home runs and five RBIs, while Guile boasts a .333 average (4-for-12), Nikki Haget is hitting .429 (3-for-7) and Thomason has two homers and three RBIs in two career games against ISU.

Quick Hitters
The information below provides a quick glimpse of a few statistics and brief notes of interest as No. 14 Nebraska takes on Iowa State in a home-and-home series on Tuesday and Thursday this week:

• The Huskers are 160-107 (.599) all-time in the month of May.
• Ten of Nebraska’s 12 losses this season have come to teams ranked in the top 30 of the NCAA RPI.
• Heidi Foland enters this week with 24 career home runs, one shy of 10th place on the Nebraska career chart.
• Taylor Edwards enters play this weekend with 49 hits this season. She needs only one hit to become just the third Husker freshman in the past decade to record 50 hits in a season.
• Ashley Hagemann enters this week with 277 strikeout this season. With two more strikeouts, Hagemann will pass Leigh Ann Walker and move into the fifth place on Nebraska’s season strikeout chart, including the second-highest total among all juniors in Husker history.
• Hagemann also enters the week with 25 wins this season. The record for most wins by a Husker junior is 26.
• Hagemann has not allowed a first-inning run all season. She has appeared in the first inning 31 times this season and has allowed no runs and only 12 hits, while striking out 42 in 31.0 innings. Overall, Hagemann has not allowed a first-inning run in her last 34 games dating back to last season.
• Julie Brechtel has reached base safely in a team-high six straight games. During the streak, Brechtel has reached base in 12 of her 19 plate appearances, good for a .632 on-base percentage. She is batting .364 (4-for-11) during the streak, with a double, a home run, two RBIs, five walks and three hit-by-pitches.
• Nebraska has hit at least one home run in 10 straight games against Iowa State, dating back to 2006.
• Thursday’s game with Iowa State will mark Rhonda Revelle’s 1,000th game as Nebraska’s head coach.

Oh So Close
Nebraska is 35-12 this season and despite the impressive record, the Huskers have had a chance to turn several losses into victories, especially during Big 12 Conference play. Of Nebraska’s 12 losses this season, five have been by a single run. The Huskers have also lost five games when they either led or were tied in the seventh inning. Nebraska is just 1-7 this season when trailing after the fifth inning, and only 2-4 when the game is tied after five innings of play. Below is a look at seven Big 12 losses that could have been wins:

• at No. 7 Oklahoma (March 27): Nebraska trailed 2-1 after five innings of play before Oklahoma scored four times in the sixth inning. The Huskers then scored twice in the seventh and left the bases loaded in a 6-3 loss.
• vs. No. 5 Texas (April 9): The game was scoreless in the seventh inning before a fly ball to the warning track in center field bounced out of Nikki’s Haget glove and over the fence for a solo home run in the Longhorns’ 1-0 win.
• vs. No. 5 Texas (April 10): Nebraska led 3-1 with two outs in the seventh inning, before Texas tied the game with a two-run homer. The Longhorns won the game in the eighth, 4-3, when Amy Hooks stole home on a botched squeeze attempt.
• vs. No. 8 Missouri (April 23): Nebraska trailed 1-0 in the top of the seventh inning before allowing Missouri to score three crucial insurance runs. The Huskers scored once in the bottom of the seventh and brought the tying run to the plate before losing 4-1.
• vs. Texas Tech (May 1): Nebraska stranded seven runners and hit into two doubles plays through the first six innings, but still found themselves in a scoreless tie with Texas Tech heading into the seventh inning. But the Red Raiders scored five runs in the seventh inning, despite only two balls leaving the infield, to win 5-0.
• at No. 20 Baylor (May 7): Nebraska broke a scoreless tie in the top of the seventh inning with a one-out RBI double. A second runner was thrown out at home on the play, before Baylor used an RBI single and a Husker error to rally for a 2-1 walk-off win in the bottom of the seventh inning.
• at No. 20 Baylor (May 8): In another scoreless game, Nebraska stranded runners at second and third in the top of the seventh inning, before Baylor used a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to earn a 1-0 walk-off win.

Huskers Chasing School Records
With four games remaining in the regular season, Nebraska is challenging several school records this season. If the season ended today, the Huskers would set school records for slugging percentage and on-base percentage.

Huskers Fielding Well
Nebraska has committed only 34 errors in 47 games this season, as the Huskers’ .972 fielding percentage is just shy of the best mark in school history. The Huskers currently rank fourth in the Big 12 Conference and 21st nationally in fielding percentage. In league games only, Nebraska is fielding at a .976 clip that ranks second in the conference.