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Kalkowski drives in four in 12-3 win
 Kalkowski  Kiser  Kubat |
Kash Kalkowski led the Huskers with a season-high three hits and tied his career high in RBIs with four, as the junior roped two singles and belted a home run onto the center field berm to lead off the fourth inning for his first home run since the opening game of the season. Rich Sanguinetti added two hits and two runs, while Kale Kiser and Pat Kelly each drove in a pair of runs.
Freshman Kyle Kubat picked up his first win as a Husker in his third career start over three innings of work. The Creighton Prep product gave up one run on three hits, while striking out one. Junior Ryan Hander added two innings of perfect baseball, while Brandon Pierce and Tyler King combined to pitch the final four innings of the game.
After Kubat retired the Bears in order to start the game, the Husker offense gave the freshman a 2-0 lead to work with. Sanguinetti laced a single into center and stole second to get into scoring position before Chad Christensen walked to give NU runners at first and second with one out. Josh Scheffert then hit a hard grounder to second, but with a hit-and-run on, Sanguinetti moved to third and Christensen to second. That set the table for Kalkowski to pick up his first two RBIs of the night on a two-out single to right field.
Kubat retired the first six Bears he faced but got into some trouble in the top of the third following a leadoff single by Harrison Lambert. After a strikeout and another single, Lambert scored to cut the NU lead to 2-1 on a fielder's choice. With two out, Kubat loaded the bases with back-to-back walks but got out of the inning on a diving stop by Kurt Farmer at third base to end the inning.
Hanging onto a one-run lead going into the bottom of the fourth, the Huskers pulled away from the Bears with seven runs on five hits. After Kalkowski led off the inning with a homer, Austin Darby followed with a double, Farmer walked, Sam Stucky singled and Pat Kelly doubled with the bases loaded to put the Huskers up 5-1 with no outs and runners on second and third. The inning then got longer for the Bears when Ryan Yamane committed an error on a grounder from Michael Pritchard that allowed both Stucky and Kelly to score. Kalkowski added another RBI later in the inning after Christensen was hit by a pitch and Scheffert doubled.
The Huskers added three runs in the bottom of the eighth on a sacrifice fly from Richard Stock and a two-out pinch-hit two-RBI ground-rule double by Kiser.
Nebraska will go for the two-game sweep Wednesday with sophomore lefty Zach Hirsch on the mound. Northern Colorado has not announced its starter.
Wednesday's start time has been moved up from 1:35 p.m. to 12:05 p.m. because of weather concerns.