Stats & coverage
Feb. 15, 2002
Huskers win season opener in 13 innings
Houston, TX -- Jeff Leise singled
in Brandon Eymann with the winning run in the bottom of the 13th inning
as eighth-ranked Nebraska opened the 2002 season with a 3-2 victory over
New Mexico at the Crowne-Plaza/Rice Invitational Friday afternoon.
With one out and the score tied at two,
Eymann, who went 2-for-4 with a pair of walks, singled to right and moved
to second on a Joe Simokaitis sacrifice bunt, setting the stage for Leise,
who roped a Derek McCready offering into center, scoring the game winner
for the Huskers, who won their opener for the first time since 1999. McCready
(1-2) took the loss for the Lobos, who dropped to 4-8 on the season.
The Huskers, who were held to 11 hits, relied
on outstanding pitching and defense in snapping a two-game losing streak
dating back to last season. NU hurlers Shane Komine, Steve Hale and Waylon
Byers combined for 10 strikeouts and allowed only eight hits in the win,
its longest game since going 16 innings at Iowa State on April 18, 1999.
Hale threw 6.1 innings of five-hit relief
before Byers came in with two on and one out in the top of the 13th. The
left-hander needed only one pitch to induce Donny Sevieri to bounce into
an inning-ending double play, picking up the win to move to 1-0 on the
year.
"I don't think we could have pitched better
and except for one error, our defense was perfect today," Nebraska Coach
Dave Van Horn said. "Steve really pitched well. He didn't let things bother
him and was able to get his curveball over."
Despite the victory, Van Horn was disappointed
that NU left 14 runners on base and had the winning run on third in both
the 11th and 12th innings before capitalizing on Leise's game-winning
hit. NU scored all three of its runs with two outs.
"I didn't think we were very aggressive
at the plate and we made to many little errors." Van Horn said. "New Mexico
played very well, but our lack of execution was nearly our downfall. We
didn't do a good job of moving runners all day and wasted too many chances
with runners in scoring position."
The Huskers jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead
in the bottom of the first. With two outs, Jed Morris crushed a 3-2 fastball
from James Vermilyea off the screen in dead center to give NU a 1-0 lead.
The Lobos took their only lead of the day,
scoring a pair of runs of Komine on Chris Alexander's fourth homer of
the season to take a 2-1 advantage.
NU pieced together another rally to tie
the score in the bottom of the fourth. Justin Seely doubled with one out,
moved to third on Drew Anderson's ground out and scored as Will Bolt legged
out an infield single behind second.
The Huskers' tying run would be the last
for another nine innings, as the crisply played game turned into a pitchers
duel. In his first start since surgery in September, Komine was sharp,
allowing two runs on three hits, while striking out six Lobos. The senior
All-American topped the 400-strikeout plateau when he fanned Joe Salas
in the fourth.
Source: University of Nebraska Athletic Dept.
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