Husker Tickets

Dorn on Howser Trophy watch list

Nebraska senior pitcher Johnny Dorn is on a list of 50 players that are under consideration for the 2008 Dick Howser Award.

The Howser Award is the baseball equivalent of college football's Heisman Trophy, and is given to the top baseball player of the year. The trophy is named in honor of Dick Howser, a Florida State All-American and major league player and manager who died in 1987 due to brain cancer.

Dorn carried a 5-1 record and 2.60 earned-run average into last weekend's series at Baylor, and is among the Big 12 Conference leaders in strikeouts, batting average, innings pitched and ERA. He has allowed two runs or less in seven of nine starts this year and has wins over Stanford and Texas this season.

The winner of the award will be announced at the College World Series on Saturday, June 14. Dorn is one of four Big 12 players on the watch list. Also on the list are Texas A&M third baseman Dane Carter and Missouri teammates Jacob Priday (outfield) and Aaron Crow (pitcher).

Huskers nearing top five in Baseball America ratings

Coming off a rare series win at Baylor, the Nebraska baseball team finds itself just outside the top five of this week's Baseball America Top 25 rankings.

The Huskers moved up two spots to No. 6 and became the highest-ranked team in the Big 12 Conference after Missouri was swept on the road at Texas A&M, falling 11 spots to No. 15.

The Huskers do have company in the top 10, though. Both Oklahoma State and Texas A&M moved into the top 10 this week after weekend sweeps at home. The Cowboys took three from Kansas while the Aggies swept Missouri.

The Huskers play host to Western Illinois in games today and tomorrow, then host Louisiana-Lafayette for a three-game series this weekend at Haymarket Park.

This week's Baseball America Top 25 is as follows:

1. Miami (36-5, 1), 2. North Carolina (38-8, 2), 3. Stanford (25-13, 5), 4. Arizona State (35-7, 6), 5. Florida State (35-7, 3),

6. Nebraska (32-8, 8), 7. Rice (34-11, 9), 8. San Diego (35-11, 11), 9. Oklahoma State (32-11, 13),

10. Texas A&M (37-7, 18),11. Georgia (29-14, 10), 12. Cal State Fullerton (26-15, 15), 13. UC Irvine (28-10, 16), 14. Wichita State (33-9, 14), 15. Missouri (29-14, 4),

16. California (27-13, 7), 17. South Carolina (31-14, 12), 18. Kentucky (33-11, 22), 19. North Carolina State (30-13, 24), 20. Coastal Carolina (36-9, 20),

21. Michigan (30-10, 19), 22. Vanderbilt (31-13, 17), 23. Oregon State (20-14 2-1 NR), 24. St. John's (31-10, NR), 25. Long Beach State (26-15, 25).

Huskers take two of three at Baylor

The Husker baseball team got a big lift this past weekend after taking two of three games on the road at Baylor.

After rain washed out Friday's opener, the teams played two and the Huskers came away with a sweep. Nebraska won the opener 4-4 in 10 innings, then dominated the Bears with a 14-1 victory in the nightcap to secure the series win.

In the opener, the two teams were tied 4-4 after nine innings, but D.J. Belfonte came through with a two-out, two-run single in the top of the 10th to give Nebraska the lead. The hit came after Baylor tied the game with two runs in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings.

Craig Corriston got Nebraska the early lead in the first game, as his solo homer in the second made it 1-0. Baylor hit Johnny Dorn for a pair of runs in the fifth, but Nebraska tied the game on a Baylor error in the sixth. Belfonte had a two-run single in the eighth to give Nebraska a 4-2 advantage before Baylor came back.

In the second game, Jake Opitz had a big outing, going 3-for-5 with a homer and five RBI's as the Huskers blew out the Bears.

Nebraska jumped on Baylor for seven runs in the first inning to secure their first road doubleheader sweep since 1994. The wins were Nebraska's first at Baylor since 2002.

Thad Weber pitched a solid game for the Huskers, allowing one run on four hits in seven innings.

Baylor was able to come away with a win in Sunday's finale, taking an 8-3 win. The loss, coupled with Texas A&M's sweep of MIssouri, dropped the Huskers 2 1/2 games behind the Aggies in the Big 12 Conference race.

Nebrsaka hosts Western Illinois in a two-game set beginning Tuesday, then will host Louisiana-Lafayette in a weekend series beginning Friday at Haymarket Park.

Get your Husker baseball tickets now at Ticket Express -- where no Husker home game is ever sold out.

Football season upcoming for the Huskers

Nebraska kicks off the 2008 Husker football season at home on Saturday, Aug. 30, and you can get tickets for all the games at Ticket Express.

The season starts with the Huskers playing host to an up-and-coming team from Western Michigan. The following week is the first of back-to-back contests against WAC teams. San Jose State visits Nebraska on Sept. 6, while New Mexico State Aggies comes to town for a meeting with the Huskers on Sept. 13.

The Huskers hit a challenging stretch of the schedule after a week's vacation. They'll face a national title contender on Sept. 27 when they play host to  Virginia Tech and will follow that up with their Big 12 debut against defending North Division champion  Missouri on Oct. 4. Both teams should be preseason top 10 teams, so it will be a great opportunity to see how far the Huskers have come from last year's 5-7 season.

Nebraska goes on the road for the first time on Oct. 11, as they travel to Lubbock, Texas to meet Texas Tech in what could be a high-scoring battle. The following week, the Huskers are back on the road again to meet old rival Iowa State in an Oct. 18 matchup.

The Huskers host Baylor for Homecoming on Oct. 25, then are on the road again on Nov. 1, facing traditional rival Oklahoma in what should be a key matchup for the Huskers.

Kansas comes to Lincoln on Nov. 8, which should be an entertaining game after the Jayhawks ran up the score for 76 points against Nebraska last year. That game is followed by the Huskers' last road game of the year at Kansas State on Nov. 15, and they will finish the regular season the day after Thanksgiving, facing Colorado on Friday, Nov. 28.

Ticket Express is your source for all Husker football tickets, both home and away. Get your Husker tickets now at Ticket Express -- where no Husker home game is ever sold out.

Key weekend coming up in Big 12 race

Texas A&M extended its lead over Nebraska by a game after its sweep of Baylor over the weekend.

The Huskers are still in second place after taking two of three from Kansas, but Oklahoma State's sweep of Texas leapfrogged the Cowboys into third place, just 2 1/2 games behind the Huskers.

This weekend will be a key three-day set for the top teams. The first-place Aggies play host to fourth-place Missouri, the second-place Huskers travel to Baylor and the third-place Cowboys play host to Kansas.

The other conference matchups this weekend include Oklahoma at Texas Tech and Texas at Kansas State. The road team will be favored in each of those series.

The current Big 12 standings are as follows (overall record in parenthesis):

Texas A&M 15-3-0 (34-7-0)

Nebraska 13-4-1 (29-7-1)

Oklahoma State 11-7-0 (28-11-0)

Missouri 9-6-0 (29-10-0)

Texas 8-10-0 (24-16-0)

Baylor 8-10-0 (23-18-0)

Kansas 5-10-0 (25-19-0)

Kansas State 5-10-0 (18-21-0)

Oklahoma 4-10-1 (26-15-1)

Texas Tech 5-13-0 (19-23-0)

Huskers take two from Creighton; Baylor next

Nebraska clinched the in-state series with Creighton with back-to-back wins earlier this week.

On Tuesday, the Huskers came from behind to beat the Bluejays 4-3 at Haymarket Park, scoring four runs in the sixth to overcome a 2-0 deficit.

The big blow came from the bat of Ben Kline, whose two-run single brought home the tying and go-ahead runs. The Huskers were held scoreless until the sixth and strung together three hits to get the rally going. Mitch Abeita had an RBI single and Dan Johnston was hit by a pitch, bringing a run home to tie the game.

The following night, the Huskers didn't need to worry about a comeback, as they tied a school record with 13 runs in the fifth inning on their way to a 16-7 pasting of the Bluejays at Rosenblatt Stadium.

Nebraska sent 17 batters to the plate in the fifth inning, burning their way through five Creighton pitchers and tying a school record for most runs in an inning. The mark was originally set on March 16, 1999, when they scored 13 in an inning against Chicago State on their way to an NCAA-record 50 runs in a single game.

Nebraska set a school record with 10 doubles, which accounted for more than half of the Huskers' 18 hits. The 10 doubles eclipsed the old mark of eight, last reached against Missouri in 1995.

Jake Opitz and Craig Corriston each had three hits for the Huskers, who improved to 30-7-1 on the season. They'll face Creighton one more time, as the two hook up May 13 at Rosenblatt Stadium.

For now, the Huskers turn their attention back to the Big 12, and they will hit the road this weekend to face Baylor in a key weekend series. The Huskers traditionally have had a difficult time competing against the Bears in Waco, Texas, and with the Huskers 1 1/2 games behind Texas A&M in the conference regular-season race, they'll need to come up big to keep pace with the Aggies.

The Huskers return home for a two-game midweek series next week against Western Illinois, then host Louisiana-Lafayette in their final nonconference matchup of the year next weekend.

You can get your Husker tickets now at Ticket Express -- where no Husker home event is ever sold out.

Huskers show improvement at Spring Game

The Red-White Spring Game brought out a huge crowd, as a record-setting 80,149 fans saw the efforts of the first team coach by Bo Pelini. And while a lot of the atmosphere and feeling was back in Memorial Stadium, there was a lot of concern about what fans would see on the field Saturday afternoon.

As it turns out, the team showed a lot of improvement from where it was at a few months ago as it tried to lick its wounds from a dreadful 5-7 season. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done before the Saturday, Aug. 30 season opener against Western Michigan, but fans saw some good things from the last spring practice of the season.

Fans were excited on the first play from scrimmage when the White team lined up in the classic triple option set. Pelini was hoping to run an option play on the first play from scrimmage, but the Red defense snuffed it out and Tyler Wortman forced a fumble and recovered it on the White 7-yard line, setting up Nebraska's first score. It was the first of a combined four turnovers forced by the defensive units, which is a good sign considering the Huskers forced a total of 11 turnovers in 12 games last year.

Joe Ganz hit redshirt freshman Curenski Gilleylen on a 77-yard touchdown pass to highlight the offensive performance of the two teams, which combined for over 600 yards in total offense and 38 points (the Red won, 24-14). Ganz threw a pair of touchdown passes and Roy Helu highlighted the running backs' efforts with a game-high 69 yards on 16 carries.

All in all, it was a great day to be a Husker fan, as many former Huskers were on hand to support the program they helped make legendary. Athletic director Tom Osborne and Pelini have both gone out of their way to welcome the old players back, a complete change from the previous regime's locked-door policy, and everybody got to see the progress of a team that, hopefully, will be more competitive and more entertaining to watch in 2008.

Don't forget -- you can get your Nebraska football tickets for the 2008 season now at Ticket Express -- where no Husker home game is ever sold out.

Huskers have home-and-home with Creighton

Thanks to Mother Nature, the Nebraska baseball team will have a home-and-home series with Creighton this week.

The two teams play their regularly-scheduled game tonight at Haymarket Park, then will play a rescheduled game Wednesday at Rosenblatt Stadium. Wednesday's game is rescheduled from Tuesday, April 1, as the game was called on account of bad weather. The two teams will play the third and final game of their I-80 rivalry on Tuesday, May 13 at Rosenblatt Stadium.

This weekend, the Huskers hit the road to face Baylor in a key Big 12 showdown at Waco, Texas. The Huskers are back home Tuesday, April 29, for a two-game set with Western Illinois.

Get your Husker baseball tickets now at Ticket Express -- where no Husker home game is ever sold out.

Huskers take two of three from Kansas

Nebraska continued its solid play at home this season, taking two of three from Kansas in a Big 12 Conference matchup at Haymarket Park.

On Friday, Craig Corriston came through with a two-run single in the seventh to help the Huskers come from behind to post a 7-6 win. Corriston stroked a bases-loaded single to left, scoring Jake Mort and Jake Opitz with the deciding runs.

Johnny Dorn pitched well in Friday's win, going 7 2/3 innings and scattering nine hits. He struck out 11 to reach double digits in strikeouts for the third time this season.

On Saturday, Mitch Abeita hit a grand-slam homer in the fourth inning, bringing the sold out crowd of 8,697 to its feet as the Huskers posted an 8-6 triumph.

Abeita's grand slam was the first in 13 months for the Huskers. Opitz drove in two runs, including the go-ahead run in the fifth inning.

On Sunday, the Huskers dropped only their second home game in 24 starts, as Kansas came away with a 6-3 win. The Huskers ran into a solid pitcher in Kansas' T.J. Walz, who held Nebraska scoreless until the sixth. Bryce Nimmo had two hits in the losing effort.

The 28-7-1 Huskers have a home-and-home set with Creighton this week. The two teams meet Tuesday at Haymarket Park, then play at Rosenblatt Stadium Wednesday to make up an April 1 game that was rained out.

Get your Husker baseball tickets now at Ticket Express -- where no Husker home game is ever sold out.

Spring Game drawing a big crowd

The Red-White Spring Game has been a fairly well-attended event for Husker fans over the years.

But never like this.

For the first time, a sellout crowd is expected at Memorial Stadium for the annual intrasquad scrimmage, as first-year coach Bo Pelini shows off the talent returning and gives Husker fans a glimpse of what to expect for the 2008 season.

During the past few years, the Spring Game has been a big draw with over 60,000 fans in attendance. This year, though, tickets have been hotter than an August afternoon as fans have scrambled to secure seats to see the new coach and his assistants in action.

Interest in this game has taken on a life of its own, too. An Associated Press story Tuesday noted the fact that the Huskers were playing before a sellout crowd, something of an oddity in major college football. Tickets for the game have been a hot item, with Ticket Express cited as the source for information about ticket prices.

"I hope to see the place full," Pelini told the Lincoln Journal-Star. "It should be a heck of an atmosphere for our guys. Once again, to see all the support, it hopefully will put some juice in them and make them want to work that much harder through the summer."