Rohr of the Crowd - Feb. 3, 2012

Rohr of the Crowd is the official blog of Nate Rohr, the play-by-play announcer for Husker softball. Nate has called Nebraska softball games since 2004 and will call every game of the 2012 season. Nate is not employed by the University of Nebraska and the opinions and content of this blog are his own. Look for new blog entries weekly.  

I can't wait to see this team play.

That's my overriding thought right now, as we prepare for the start of 2012.

Last year was a glimpse of what this team might be able to do. After all, the Huskers knocked off 20th-ranked Stanford in the first weekend, beat nationally-ranked BYU and Hawaii in the same day in the third weekend, then upset No. 1 Florida in Clearwater. They beat Oklahoma the first weekend of conference play, snuck past No. 13 Missouri despite getting outhit by five, then rebounded from three straight Big 12 losses to win their last four in conference play. After being upset in the first round of regionals, the Huskers rebounded to win back-to-back games to reach the regional finals for the first time since 2006.

And yet, last year feels somewhat unsatisfying. After all, in five of Nebraska's nine Big 12 losses, the opponent took the lead in its final half-inning at the plate, including two walk-off losses at Baylor and two home losses against Texas that saw the Longhorns win in successive days on a home run that bounced off an outfielder's glove in the seventh inning and on a busted squeeze in the top of the eighth. In the first round of regionals, NU outhit Fresno State 7-3 but couldn't get a runner to third base and committed three errors as the Bulldogs edged the Huskers 1-0 in 10 innings.

In short, even though last year's Nebraska softball team accomplished a lot, it was also very close to accomplishing much, much more. It's part of a team's growth process to figure out how to close out close games. All but two of the Huskers' starters return, and I'm curious, much as anything, to see what they've learned from last year, being right there, sometimes breaking through, sometimes not.

This team has as much talent in as many key spots as any of the eight I've covered at Nebraska. It has a battle-tested ace in Ashley Hagemann, and an All-American catcher, Taylor Edwards, who is not only a deadly bat but also a top-notch defender. It has experienced and successful hitters in the heart of the order (Brooke Thomason, Ashley Guile, Tatum Edwards) and solid tablesetters (Nikki Haget and Gabby Banda). That's not to say the team is without questions; after all, Rhonda Revelle has to replace two four-year starters on the infield, Julie Brechtel and Heidi Foland. Also, now that the Huskers are playing three-game conference series, the emergence of a No. 2 pitcher is vital if Nebraska is to be successful in the conference.

But if last year proved anything, it's that Nebraska is just a handful of plays away from being a force again on the national stage. The Huskers return most of the players who got them that close. Whether or not this team has picked up enough since last May in Palo Alto to make those plays is the question we will get answered over the next three months.

Tough Schedule
The best part is we start getting answers to these questions very early in the season, perhaps as early as the first two games. The season begins with matchups against No. 12 Washington and No. 8 Arizona, two WCWS mainstays which return at least seven starters each (including both team's aces, Washington's Kaitlin Inglesby and Arizona's Kenzie Fowler). Two weekends later, Nebraska faces No. 16 Oregon, a Super Regional team last year, then closes its stay in Cathedral City with WCWS participant and No. 6 Missouri, No. 18 Texas and then a rematch with Washington. The Huskers will see No. 20 Houston, No. 17 Texas A&M and No. 11 Oklahoma State in the last two weekends of non-conference play.

The Social Network
In our unending quest to give you as much info on your Huskers as possible, we invite you to like the Husker Softball Facebook page. We'll have info from the game sites, audio and video highlight reels and much more. We also invite your questions and comments on there for each game and we may read them on-the-air.

Big Ten 101
It's been a good year so far for Nebraska's women's sports in the Big Ten Conference. The volleyball team captured the conference championship despite the Big Ten being much stronger in volleyball than the Big 12. And, after last night's thrilling triple-overtime victory, the women's basketball team has pushed into the lead in the conference.

So where does Husker Softball stack up in the league? Unfortunately, we won't get that answer from the coaches of the league, since the Big Ten is the only major conference that typically doesn't release a preseason conference poll. But from the national polls, we can infer that the Huskers are picked second in the league, behind Michigan, which was ranked No. 15 and 16 in the polls, ahead of Nebraska's No. 21 and 20. No other Big Ten team received votes in the NFCA poll, while Ohio State and Northwestern got votes in the ESPN/USA Softball Poll.

For the past decade or so, Big Ten softball has started and ended with Michigan. The Wolverines have qualified for nine WCWS since 1995, including the 2005 national championship. Michigan has won at least a share of the last four Big Ten championships, six of the last eight, and eight of the last 11. The biggest question for Michigan this year is the biggest question for any softball team: Who will pitch? All-American Jordan Taylor departs after going 31-5 with a 1.51 ERA in her senior season, closing a career in which she set school records for wins, innings pitched, winning percentage and strikeouts. Stephanie Speierman was 18-1 with a 1.88 ERA, but pitched only 26 innings in conference play, so a pair of freshmen, Haylie Wagner and Sara Driesenga, may be called on to take the torch from Taylor. The good news for the Wolverines is that they return three All-Americans in their lineup, led by first-team All-American Amanda Chidester, who hit .423 with 13 homers and 75 RBI.

After Michigan, I'm struck by the flux in the conference. Northwestern qualified for the WCWS in 2006 and 2007 and made it to Super Regionals four straight years, 2005-08, but hasn't made regionals the last two years and finished 10th in the Big Ten last year with a 5-13 conference record. Ohio State went from hosting regionals in 2009 and 2010 to quite literally limping to a last-place finish last year in an injury-plagued 2011. The addition of Morgan Melloh pushed Indiana into regionals last year after the Hoosiers finished 10th in the conference the year before, while Penn State jumped three spots to fourth last year to sneak into regionals.

Flux might be the key word in the Big Ten for the next couple years. Last year was the first year for new head coaches at Minnesota (Jessica Allister), Wisconsin (Yvette Healy), Iowa (Marla Looper). This year, the conference will play three-game series for the first time in a while. Add to that a softball power like Nebraska, and the landscape of the conference looks much, much different from just a couple years ago.

Weekend Warmup: The Kajikawa Classic, Tempe, Ariz.
The Huskers start the season in Tempe against a team from the Great Northwest for the second straight year. But this year, the Huskers square off with No. 12 and 14 Washington. It strikes me as odd that this is only the second matchup between NU and the Huskies since 2006, considering how often these teams paths have crossed, either at regionals (Nebraska and Washington have been in the same regional twice in that span) or at preseason tournaments, especially considering the fact that the Huskers' tournament schedule has taken them west more often than not the past few years. For the record, the last matchup was in 2009 at the Cathedral City Classic, a 6-0 Washington win in a season in which the Huskies went on to win the national championship. Last year, Washington finished sixth in the Pac-10, but advanced to the super regional round, where it lost to Missouri in two games. Kaitlin Inglesby did an admirable job in filling for All-American Danielle Lawrie, pitching to a 24-9 record with a 2.38 ERA. All-American Nikia Williams powers the UW lineup, hitting 14 home runs while slugging .727 last year.

The Huskers stay in the Pac-12 for their second opponent, No. 8 Arizona. The Wildcats are trying to bounce back from a down year. Of course, a down year for Arizona is defined as one that doesn't see them make a trip to Oklahoma City in June. UA fell in two games to Oklahoma in the Super Regional. The Wildcats return All-American pitcher Kenzie Fowler, who battled supremely bad luck after getting hit in the head by a foul line drive in the dugout to put together a 26-8 record with a 1.76 ERA. Kenzie is the older sister of Husker third baseman Mattie Fowler. Arizona loses a couple of potent bats in catcher Stacie Chambers and outfielder Brittany Lastrapes, but brings back second-team All-American third baseman Bridgette Del Ponte, who hit 17 homers while slugging .746.

Idaho State and Nebraska square off on Friday night. The Bengals were 16-32 last year, their second-best record since the softball program was reinstituted in 2007. ISU competes in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference, the league won by Portland State (coached by former Husker Tobin Echo-Hawk) in two of the last three years.

On Saturday, the Huskers tussle with Cal State Northridge. The Matadors are under second-year head coach Tairia Flowers, and return most of its lineup and basically all of its pitching. The bad news for Northridge: the Matadors really struggled in the circle last year, posting a team ERA of 5.19 while striking out just under three batters a game.

Nebraska takes on Oregon State for the second straight year at the Kajikawa Classic. Last year, the Beavers finished 2-19 in the always-powerful Pac-10, but finished with a solid 17-9 non-conference record. OSU returns all but one starter from last year, but will need more from its offense if the Beavers are to improve last year's record. Oregon State averaged just under three runs a game and hit .228 last year, and averaged 1.4 runs a game in conference play.

The final opponent of the first weekend will be Georgia Tech, the preseason No. 23 team in the country in the ESPN/USA Softball poll. The Yellow Jackets have won the last three ACC championships, but have to replace three of their top four hitters and their top pitcher, Kirsten Adkins, who was 20-6 with a 1.57 ERA. Hope Rush, who was an All-American as a freshman, took a step back last year, but seems poised to step back into the ace role for Tech. The lineup, which ranked second in home runs per game last year, will be led by returning All-American shortstop Kelsi Weseman, who hit an electric .424 last year with 21 home runs. The last matchup between these two teams saw the Huskers upset Tech, 2-0, in 2010 at the Leadoff Classic in Columbus, Ga.

That's all for now...we'll talk to you Thursday from Tempe!

Go Big Red!

Nate