Kansas (24-16, 4-8) @ Nebraska (26-6, 11-3-1)

by James Quinn on Apr 18, 2008 10:46 AM CDT in Baseball

vs.
Kansas Jayhawks (24-16) vs. Nebraska (26-6)
Kansas Baseball has a tough weekend in store for them. Nebraska has been the biggest surprise in the Big-12 this year. The Huskers have put together a great season. At 11-3-1 they stand one-half game out of first place. They are ranked #13 in the RPI, and Baseball America has them at #9. Nebraska's six losses have all been to very good teams, two at Stanford, two at Oklahoma State and one each to Arkansas and Texas. This does not bode well for the Jayhawks - The Huskers win at home, beat the teams they are supposed to beat, and have never stumbled in 2008. Coming into 2008 I expected Nebraska to be one of the weaker teams in the conference. Shows how much I know. Kansas is playing great baseball right now but will be hard pressed in Lincoln. Winning one of the three will have to be considered a perfectly respectable performance. If KU is going to maintain its standing as one of the top eight teams in the conference avoiding a sweep will be the top priority.

Friday 6:30PM: Nick Czyz (2-3, 6.16 ERA) vs. Johnny Dorn (4-1, 1.98 ERA)
Saturday 3:30PM: Andres Esquibel (3-2, 3.49) vs. Thad Weber (6-2, 3.93 ERA)
Sunday 1PM: T.J. Walz (2-0, 4.15 ERA) vs. Aaron Pribanic (3-1, 3.42 ERA)

Media: KLWN AM-1320 will broadcast all three games live. For those outside the Lawrence area steaming audio will be available through this site. Sunday's game will be telecast on CBS College Sports (Sunflower Cable channel 143) on tape delay at 6:30PM.

Complete Nebraska stats are located here. Jayhawk stats here.

Scouting Nebraska

You may have noticed, Nebraska has some good starting pitching. No, strike that, Nebraska has a horrifying weekend rotation. Dorn is looking very All-American. Weber would be the ace on about 95% of other NCAA teams. Pribanic has already pitched two complete games this year, including a shutout. In terms of starting pitching this year, NU has an embarrassment of riches.

Nebraska's offense is really pretty average. The Huskers are hitting .282/.372/.404 on the year and scoring 6.6 runs per game. The low power is partially off-set with a plus running game (49 of 65 stolen bases) but in the big picture, KU has a slight edge here. The Huskers have five regulars hitting over .300 but no true stars. Nick Sullivan and Jake Opitz share the team lead in RBI's at 26. Mitch Abeitz has six homeruns. No other Husker has hit more than three. A strong performance by any KU starter could shut down this offense.

NU is allowing 4.0 runs per game, which is phenomenal in the NCAA. The low run production of opponents is almost entirely due to Nebraska pitching. The Huskers defense is a bit below average.

How can KU win a game or two this weekend? The Hawks cannot count on getting into a shootout. They need the great starting pitching seen last weekend vs. Texas Tech again this weekend, plus they need to put balls in play. I can't see swinging for the fences as the best approach when facing pitchers of this caliber. Make contact, test the Nebraska defense, force their starters to throw pitches by working counts, get into their bullpen. Nebraska's relief corp looks good (not great) on paper, but only one reliever has accumulated more than 15 innings this year. Their most commonly called upon arms look much more vulnerable then do their starters: Zach Herr (15.1 Innings, 3.52 ERA), Erik Anderson (10 innings, 3.60 ERA), Mike Nesseth (14 innings, 5.14 ERA) and Erik Bird (17.1 Innings, 5.19 ERA).

Corn Nation, RCT's Nebraska sister blog, always provides great baseball coverage. I'm sure there will be some banter to be found there over the weekend. Nebraska baseball has a great following and the fans up North are pretty pumped about how this season is playing out. Hopefully the Hawks will show their best stuff this weekend and take their pound of flesh before leaving Lincoln.

Nebraska Prospect Report by bkmhoxx

C Mitch Abeita - 6'1, 189 SR - Abeita is one of the top 15-20 catchers in the nation. He is hitting .347 with 6 HR, 25 RBI, 6 doubles and 23 walks to 14 K's and he even has some speed with 6 steals. Im not sure about his defense but if he can stay at catcher and put up decent offensive numbers, he will play at the next level. I’d expect him to go somewhere around round 10.
2B Jake Opitz - 6', 188 SR - Opitz has a nice bat for a second baseman. He is at .328 with 3 HR, 26 RBI, 8 doubles, 2 triples, 18 walks and 11 K's. He was drafted in '04 in the 39th round by Seattle. I think he could go somewhere near round 30 this summer if he can finish strong.

Other position players with a chance of being drafted in the late rounds or in the future: Nick Sullivan – JR left fielder who is short and stocky and strong. Hits for a high average with a little pop. Bryce Nimmo – SR outfielder that is very small with a high average and good on base skills. Craig Corriston – SR first baseman that is 5'11, 200 pounds. Decent avg. guy with developing power. David Stewart – FR outfielder drafted in the 31st round in 07 by Washington Brett Sowers – FR infielder drafted in the 47th round in 06 by the Dodgers Drew Gray – JR catcher drafted in the 27th round in 07 by Texas

RHP Johnny Dorn - 6'3, 210 SR - Dorn is the ace. He is one of the top pitchers in the country. KU will be lucky to score more than a run or two in tonight’s contest. Great pitchers frame. Dorn has a 1.98 ERA in 54.2 innings. He has given up 35 hits while only walking 13 and striking out 55. He is a strikeout pitcher with great control. I’d expect Dorn to be drafted in the top 3 rounds.
RHP Aaron Pribanic - 6'4, 200 JR- Pribanic has a perfect pitchers build. He has a 3.42 ERA in 47.1 innings. He has given up 47 hits, 20 walks and 36 strikeouts. He is hittable and doesn’t have perfect control or command, but will be very difficult to score against. Pribanic will be drafted in the top 10-15 rounds I would guess.
RHP Thad Weber - 6'2, 204 SR - Weber is another strikeout pitcher for the Huskers. He was drafted in the 35th round in 07 by Cincinnati. He has a 3.93 ERA in 50.1 innings, giving up 51 hits, 14 walks and 47 K's. Yet another great weekend starter for Nebraska that will be drafted. I’d guess Weber to go near round 20.
LHP Dan Jennings - 6'3, 183 JR - Jennings has been untouchable this year. He has a 1.65 ERA in 43.2 innings, giving up 20 hits with 17 walks and 40 K's. He is a starter and a closer and id expect him to be in relief this weekend. He should be drafted in the top 10 rounds.

Other pitchers with a chance at being drafted: Ryan Christensen – FR leftie drafted in the 35th round in 07 by the Dodgers Zach Herr - bullpen guy with great numbers Erik Anderson - bullpen guy with great numbers Mike Nesseth - bullpen guy with great numbers.

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Comments

Game One: 3-3 after three

KU is taking it to Nebraska ace Johnny Dorn so far. They have collected seven hits and three runs in the first three innings. Dorn came into the game with an ERA under two. Nick Czyz is struggling a bit. Really good game. If you can, catch the rest on AM-1320. This could be a huge win for the Hawks.

by James Quinn on Apr 18, 2008 7:56 PM CDT 0 recs

Final Score: Nebraska 7 - Kansas 6

Really good game. Tough loss but the Hawks played hard all night and went down swinging.

Very strong gritty start by Nick Czyz. He pitched into the 7th inning and threw over 120 pitches.

Kansas generated a lot of offense against one of the best college pitchers in the nation.

Nebraska has only lost one game all year in Lincoln. They did not have that impressive win-loss record gifted to them. The Huskers are a good team. Kansas pushed them hard tonight and almost stole one on the road. I feel pretty good about their chances Saturday and Sunday.

by James Quinn on Apr 18, 2008 10:10 PM CDT 0 recs

Games one Recap and Boxscore

KU recap and boxscore.

A few players to single out.
Nick Czyz' final line looks worse then he pitched. Only four of the seven runs were earned. He started the seventh inning after throwing 120+ pitches and gave up a single and a walk before being relieved. Both of these runners scored. Had he been lifted at six his line would have been 2 earned runs on five hits. Czyz has faced this same problem before. He pitched well at Vanderbilt, Baylor and Texas before giving way late. He seems to hit a wall after about a hundred pitches. With Esquibel in the rotation now Price is even more reluctant to pull Czyz when he is pitching well.

I didn't go back and look at all his games but Bollman seems to be having trouble with control lately. He walked the only batter he faced after having him down 0-2.

Casey Larson wore the Golden Sombrero. After playing great defense over the last two weeks Tony Thompson committed two throwing errors allowing in three Nebraska runs.

John Allman, Ryne Price, Erik Morrison and Preston Land each had two hits. Robby Price just missed his first home run of the season when he took Dorn to the warning track in center in the 3rd inning.

Last night the attendance was 3,510 despite the 40 degree temperature. The game this afternoon looks to be a sell out at around 7,000. Nebraska has their spring football game just before the baseball game and apparently a lot of Husker fans are just writing off the whole of Saturday to cheer on their teams. If the Hawks play as well as they did yesterday there is a good chance they will send the Nebraska fans home wailing and rending their garments in despair. We can only hope.

by James Quinn on Apr 19, 2008 11:41 AM CDT up 0 recs

Game 2: Nebraksa 8 - Kansas 6

Another close loss by the Hawks. KU led early 2-0. Esquibel gave up a grand slam in the 4th inning but KU came back to tie it 4-4 in the 5th. Nebraska then built a 7-4 lead and made it hold up.

KU has had homers from Casey Larson and Buck Afenir.

by James Quinn on Apr 19, 2008 7:09 PM CDT 0 recs

Texas Baseball shake-up

Texas' baseball team has struggled in the Big-12. After last night's loss at home to Oklahoma State the Longhorns fell to 8-9 in the conference.

Auggie Garrido reduced the active roster down to 24 players on Friday. Since college teams can carry 35 what this pretty well means is that he decided that about 10 players were off the team.

Here is a link to the Scout.com story.

After watching his team lose three of its last four, including two embarrassingly lopsided defeats to Missouri and a mid-week loss to UT-Arlington, Garrido said he asked himself: "What can we do to turn this thing around?"
The Texas head coach determined that he needed to take a drastic step to develop a cohesive "nucleus" for the team.
So he sat down with four team "representatives" (leaders) and, as a group, they assessed each player on the roster. In the end, the team representatives and Coach Garrido came out with a mutually agreed list of 24 players that would continue suiting up. The others would be on the "B" team.
Garrido stressed the fact that these were not team cuts, but rather a strategy to identify and create a more cohesive team core. Those on the B list are still entitled everything that comes with being a University of Texas baseball player: work out equipment, doctors, team meals, etc.
Coach Garrido met with the team at 3:15 Friday and revealed the list and strategy to his players (Skip Johnson took care of the pitchers). The A team suited up, the B team didn't. Garrido expressed that it was not his place to go into the reactions of his players or explain which list players were on.
Garrido also stressed the fact that this was a joint decision between him and the four team reps, and the players currently being asked not to suit up can be reevaluated at team practices and be asked to suit back up. Realistically, there won't be time for a practice in the near future so reevaluation may be more of an idea than a possibility.
"Tonight was a new beginning"

by James Quinn on Apr 20, 2008 10:08 AM CDT 0 recs