Baseball

May 6, 2001

Huskers Complete Sweep of Oklahoma State with 20-2 Victory

LINCOLN -- Fourth-ranked Nebraska scored a season-high 20 runs, while senior Brian Rodaway hurled the first complete game of his career, as the Huskers inched closer to their first regular-season conference title in 51 years, routing Oklahoma State, 20-2, in front of a crowd of 2,603 at Buck Beltzer Stadium Sunday afternoon.
 
Rodaway, one of four Husker seniors making their last home conference appearance, allowed two runs on nine hits to improve to 3-1 on the year. The left-hander stuck out three Cowboys and did not walk a batter, as he threw all seven innings in a game that was called because of the 10-run rule.
 
Brandon Eymann, Matt Hopper, John Cole and Dan Johnson all homered in the win, as Nebraska handed the Cowboys their worst loss since a 22-2 loss to UCLA in 1997 in sweeping OSU for the first time in 26 years.
 
The Huskers, who improved to 38-12 overall and 19-6 in the Big 12, need to win one of their final three games at Iowa State next weekend to clinch their first regular-season title since 1950 and only the fourth in school history.
 
The Huskers took control of the game early, scoring four runs in the bottom of the second to knock OSU starter Justin Meccage out of the game. Eymann, who entered the weekend in a 3-for-22 slump gave NU a 3-0 lead with a three-run homer to right for his third homer of the year and first in two months, while Cole made the score 4-0 drawing a bases loaded walk off Cowboy reliever Josh Merrigan. Meccage, the first of five OSU pitchers, took the loss, allowing four runs on three hits in 1.2 innings to fall to 3-2 on the year.
 
The Huskers, who scored in every inning but the first, increased the lead to 9-0 after four innings, scoring a pair in the third, highlighted by Matt Hopper's solo homer, his seventh of the year, and adding three more in the fourth, including RBI singles by Hopper, who went 3-for-4 with five runs scored, and Jeff Leise.
 
OSU trimmed the NU lead to 9-1 on Jimbo McAuliff's second homer of the year, a solo shot to center, but the Huskers came right back, scoring nine in the bottom half of the frame, including a three-run homer by Cole, who went 2-for-3 and extended his hit streak to 15 games, and a grand slam by Johnson, his Big 12 leading 19th of the year. The senior first baseman whose two run homer in the wee hours Sunday morning gave NU an 10-8 11-inning win, went 2-for-4 with five RBI Sunday's series finale.
 
"The way we won last night's game carried over into today," Van Horn said. The team was loose and excited and they wanted the sweep. We stole last night's game and both teams were running on little sweep but we played hard today."
 
The Huskers begin a busy week on Tuesday, as NU plays host to Northern Iowa in the final regular-season game at Buck Beltzer Stadium. On Wednesday, the Huskers travel to Omaha to take on Crieghton in Rosenblatt Stadium while the week concludes with a three-game series at Iowa State in what could be the Cyclones' final regular-season game in school history.
 
"Both teams were running on little sleep, but we played hard. We just need to get ready for Iowa State. They have a good team, and it will be an emotional weekend for them, the last home series that they will play."

Source: University of Nebraska Sports Information