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Nebraska vs Northwestern Baseball - The Last Battle for "NU"

By Jon Johnston
The Husker offense is tops in the Big Ten with 225 runs and 311 hits.
The Husker offense is tops in the Big Ten with 225 runs and 311 hits.

Nebraska begins its first road series in Big Ten baseball history in just a bit, going on the road to Evanston, IL to take on the Northwestern Wildcats.

Northwestern isn't very good at baseball, currently 8-14 on the season, although I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that today's game is Northwestern's home opener. Think about that for a minute. It's March 30th, and they're playing their first game at home after playing 22 games on the road. Welcome to Big Ten baseball.

No doubt Nebraska baseball neophytes will have a good time making fun of the Wildcat baseball field, which is fairly close to something you'd see at a lot of high schools.

I'd caution them against having too much fun with it, it's apparent from the inaugural year of B1G that the powers that be have found favor with Northwestern over Nebraska in the Battle for "NU".

The year against Northwestern started poorly with the football team losing at home 28-25 to the Wildcats on November 5th when Nebraska was ranked ninth. Then the Husker volleyball team lost in four sets when they were ranked second.

Men's basketball, well, hey, Northwestern is another BCS school that's never won a NCAA tourney game, but they managed to beat us in men's basketball 84-74. In women's basketball, 16th-ranked Nebraska lost at home 63-51.

The good news is that the women's basketball team got their revenge, destroying Northwestern 88-56 in the Big Ten Tourney and the Husker women's tennis team beat 14th-ranked Northwestern.

Still, I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time making fun of Northwestern right now. Why tempt fate?

Besides, going against a team with an ISR of 247 and a pseudo-RPI of 266, Nebraska really can't afford a loss this weekend.

Projected Starting Pitchers

Nebraska - Northwestern

Fri., March 30 - 3 p.m.

Jr. Tom Lemke (RHP, 2-2) vs. Northwestern - Sr. Francis Brooke (RHP, 1-1)

Sat., March 31 - 1 p.m.

So. Jon Keller (RHP, 3-0) vs. Northwestern - Fr. Brandon Magallones (RHP, 4-0)

Sun., April 1 - 1 p.m.

So. Zach Hirsch (LHP, 3-1) vs. Northwestern - Jr. Zach Morton (RHP, 0-5)

Last week saw Northwestern go to 1-2 in a series loss at Iowa. The series did not produce a lot of runs, as I pointed out in last week's review - the whole weekend was a pitcher's duel. Wildcat Brandon Magallones earned B1G weekly honors for his performance last weekend.

Will that happen this weekend? It shouldn't, although it's hard to say how the Husker bats will fair on the road. The weather looks to be fairly decent:

Friday: 59 - Mostly Cloudy

Saturday: 71 - Partly Cloudy

Sunday: 79 - Mostly Sunny

Northwestern's pitching has been fairly decent this season - notice the number of guys with a ERA under 4.00, including all three weekend starters.

Offense, that's another issue altogether. The Wildcats have only three guys hitting over .300 and as a team they have only 110 runs on the season (compared with Nebraska's 225).

Bottom line - you can see the stats for yourself. If Northwestern wins a single game this weekend, perhaps they should retain the moniker "NU".

Nebraska Offense

Player AVG GP-GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB SLG% BB HBP SO GDP OB% SF SH SB-ATT PO A E FLD%
9 Kelly, Pat....... 0.419 16-12 43 9 18 3 1 3 13 32 0.744 4 0 7 1 0.468 0 2 0-0 16 21 6 .860
20 Scheffert, Josh.. 0.409 21-15 66 18 27 6 0 3 15 42 0.636 4 0 4 0 0.443 0 0 1-1 97 27 3 .976
4 Pritchard, Michae 0.398 26-22 88 27 35 5 0 0 9 40 0.455 10 1 4 4 0.465 0 2 2-5 29 2 1 .969
2 Christensen, Chad 0.387 27-27 111 30 43 7 2 6 33 72 0.649 14 1 13 1 0.46 0 1 5-6 55 74 2 .985
39 Stock, Richard... 0.353 22-19 85 14 30 8 0 1 22 41 0.482 3 3 9 2 0.391 1 0 1-1 130 9 1 .993
11 Sanguinetti, Rich 0.34 25-24 100 23 34 6 2 2 24 50 0.5 9 0 16 0 0.387 2 9 5-7 72 1 1 .986
41 Darby, Austin.... 0.339 20-15 59 11 20 5 0 1 8 28 0.475 9 0 12 1 0.42 1 3 4-4 28 1 0 1.000
3 Kalkowski, Kash.. 0.333 19-15 66 9 22 3 0 3 19 34 0.515 1 4 4 0 0.38 0 0 1-2 43 1 1 .978
22 Headley, Blake... 0.303 16-7 33 6 10 0 0 0 4 10 0.303 5 0 6 1 0.395 0 0 1-3 9 20 1 .967
10 Farmer, Kurt..... 0.276 19-16 58 13 16 1 0 2 10 23 0.397 10 2 7 3 0.394 1 1 2-3 8 40 3 .941
13 Burleson, Cory... 0.262 20-18 61 14 16 2 0 1 14 21 0.344 6 5 13 0 0.375 0 2 1-1 86 22 1 .991
7 Peters, Bryan.... 0.254 21-20 67 17 17 3 1 0 11 22 0.328 6 7 8 1 0.37 1 0 2-4 42 67 2 .982
14 Kiser, Kale...... 0.222 25-21 72 21 16 5 0 4 18 33 0.458 23 7 7 0 0.447 1 2 4-5 37 1 1 .974
40 Stucky, Sam...... 0.192 11-8 26 7 5 1 0 0 1 6 0.231 4 2 10 1 0.333 1 2 0-0 49 8 0 1.000
46 Kildow, T........ 0.125 15-4 16 6 2 0 0 0 0 2 0.125 3 0 7 0 0.263 0 0 1-1 13 0 0 1.000
Totals.............. 0.327 27-27 951 225 311 55 6 26 201 456 0.479 111 32 127 15 0.412 8 24 30-43 732 334 25 .977
Opponents........... 0.284 27-27 952 124 270 45 3 11 118 354 0.372 94 27 147 16 0.362 7 12 12-26 695 321 40 .962

Nebraska Pitching

Player ERA W-L APP GS CG SHO/CBO SV IP H R ER BB SO 2B 3B HR AB B/Avg WP HBP BK SFA SHA
26 Vogt, Dylan...... 1.23 1-1 12 0 0 0/0 0 22 18 6 3 6 17 2 0 0 81 0.222 0 1 0 2 1
37 Hander, Ryan..... 1.38 1-0 9 0 0 0/1 0 13 7 2 2 3 9 1 0 0 44 0.159 0 1 0 0 0
44 Pierce, Brandon.. 2.25 3-1 15 1 0 0/0 1 20 15 6 5 14 12 3 0 0 73 0.205 2 1 0 0 0
31 Kubat, Kyle...... 3.12 2-0 8 3 0 0/0 0 17.1 23 6 6 11 8 5 0 0 68 0.338 0 1 0 0 1
19 Bublitz, Luke.... 3.38 0-1 9 0 0 0/0 1 10.2 12 4 4 2 11 3 0 1 41 0.293 0 2 0 1 2
55 Huber, Travis.... 3.46 0-2 12 0 0 0/0 4 13 16 8 5 8 7 2 0 0 54 0.296 1 0 0 0 0
32 King, Tyler...... 3.75 0-0 13 0 0 0/0 0 12 9 10 5 9 8 0 0 0 44 0.205 1 2 0 1 1
18 Bummer, Aaron.... 3.86 1-0 9 0 0 0/1 0 9.1 7 4 4 3 10 0 0 0 35 0.2 0 2 0 0 0
30 Lemke, Tom....... 4.05 2-2 6 5 0 0/0 0 26.2 31 13 12 6 11 8 0 1 109 0.284 0 3 0 1 0
27 Hirsch, Zach..... 4.63 3-1 7 7 0 0/0 0 35 39 18 18 7 23 8 1 3 129 0.302 0 3 0 1 5
23 Keller, Jon...... 4.64 3-0 7 7 0 0/1 0 33 44 20 17 10 17 5 1 2 138 0.319 1 7 0 0 0
50 Spitsnogle, Dexte 5.87 0-0 4 2 0 0/0 0 7.2 9 5 5 1 3 1 0 3 31 0.29 0 2 0 0 0
21 Niederklein, Tyle 7.64 2-1 8 2 0 0/0 0 17.2 26 15 15 9 7 4 1 1 73 0.356 2 1 0 1 2
36 Stovall, Jeff.... 9.45 0-0 7 0 0 0/0 0 6.2 14 7 7 5 4 3 0 0 32 0.438 2 1 0 0 0
Totals.............. 3.98 18-9 27 27 0 1/1 6 244 270 124 108 94 147 45 3 11 952 0.284 9 27 0 7 12
Opponents........... 7.77 9-18 27 27 0 1/1 4 231.2 311 225 200 111 127 55 6 26 951 0.327 21 32 2 8 24

Northwestern Offense

Player avg gp-gs ab r h 2b 3b hr rbi tb slg% bb hbp so gdp ob% sf sh sb-att po a e fld%
Rowan, Geoff 0.364 21-20 66 8 24 4 0 0 8 28 0.424 3 0 10 2 0.386 1 6 0-1 138 26 4 0.976
Havey, Jack 0.311 22-22 90 13 28 5 0 3 17 42 0.467 8 2 11 5 0.373 2 0 0-0 68 11 1 0.988
Morton, Zach 0.307 21-21 88 14 27 3 0 0 10 30 0.341 10 1 17 2 0.38 1 0 1-2 26 32 3 0.951
Linne, Nick 0.294 22-22 85 16 25 3 0 0 4 28 0.329 4 1 22 2 0.333 0 1 2-3 23 31 5 0.915
Ruchim, Kyle 0.271 22-22 85 15 23 6 1 1 11 34 0.4 16 2 9 1 0.398 0 3 3-5 30 52 7 0.921
Snieder, Paul 0.262 22-22 84 11 22 3 1 4 13 39 0.464 15 0 19 3 0.363 3 1 0-0 144 10 1 0.994
Everett, Colby 0.173 18-12 52 3 9 2 0 0 7 11 0.212 4 1 7 1 0.246 0 1 1-1 11 23 2 0.944
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Trucco, Mike 1 1-0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Libman, Cody 0.5 1-0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.5 0 0 0 0 0.5 0 0 0-0 1 0 0 1
Moses, Walker 0.436 13-9 39 5 17 3 0 1 7 23 0.59 0 0 6 0 0.425 1 2 0-0 27 1 0 1
Livingston, Jack 0.409 12-6 22 7 9 3 0 0 3 12 0.545 6 1 6 0 0.552 0 0 0-0 8 0 2 0.8
Straub, Jake 0.333 7-2 12 2 4 0 0 0 1 4 0.333 1 1 2 0 0.429 0 0 0-0 24 3 0 1
Wise, Hamilton 0.3 17-7 30 5 9 0 0 0 3 9 0.3 3 0 5 0 0.364 0 1 1-1 14 0 0 1
Stevens, Cody 0.28 17-11 25 4 7 0 0 0 4 7 0.28 1 0 5 0 0.308 0 2 0-0 20 13 1 0.971
Dauch, Luke 0.206 17-12 34 4 7 3 1 0 5 12 0.353 4 2 13 0 0.317 1 0 3-3 17 0 2 0.895
Kontos, Chris 0.071 9-2 14 0 1 1 0 0 1 2 0.143 0 0 6 0 0.067 1 0 0-0 4 1 0 1
Miller, Patrick 0 15-7 17 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 4 0 5 1 0.19 0 2 0-0 12 17 6 0.829
Hunter, Reid 0 9-1 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 1 0.273 0 0 0-0 1 2 1 0.75
Quigley, Jack 0 4-0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0-0 1 3 1 0.8
Totals 0.283 22-22 755 110 214 36 3 9 95 283 0.375 81 12 146 18 0.358 10 19 11-16 574 248 38 0.956
Opponents 0.306 22-22 732 124 224 39 7 5 108 292 0.399 68 16 155 12 0.374 8 37 13-26 588 206 31 0.962

Northwestern Pitching

Player era w-l app-gs cg sho sv ip h r er bb so 2b 3b hr ab b/avg wp hbp bk sfa sha
Jahns, Michael 1.32 1-1 7-0 0 0/0 0 13.2 13 7 2 4 12 1 0 0 52 0.25 1 0 1 0 4
Brooke, Francis 1.77 1-1 7-5 0 0/1 0 35.2 42 16 7 6 22 5 2 0 139 0.302 1 3 0 1 6
Ruchim, Kyle 2.38 0-1 8-0 0 0/1 5 11.1 7 3 3 3 13 1 0 0 38 0.184 0 1 0 0 2
Bramschreiber, Ethan 3.12 0-0 5-0 0 0/0 0 8.2 6 4 3 2 5 2 1 0 26 0.231 1 1 0 3 3
Morton, Zach 3.41 0-5 6-6 2 0/0 0 37 37 21 14 12 30 8 1 0 138 0.268 2 2 0 1 7
Magallones, Brandon 3.9 4-0 6-4 0 0/1 0 30 30 18 13 12 32 7 1 3 113 0.265 2 5 0 0 4
Tyson, Dan 4.26 2-2 5-1 0 0/0 0 12.2 17 8 6 3 6 3 0 0 52 0.327 0 1 0 0 1
Snieder, Paul 6.23 0-1 9-0 0 0/1 0 8.2 12 7 6 6 8 2 0 1 33 0.364 1 1 0 1 3
Farrell, Luke 11.57 0-3 7-5 0 0/1 1 21 38 31 27 14 21 9 1 1 90 0.422 2 0 0 2 3
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Havey, Jack 0 0-0 1-1 0 0/0 0 3 7 3 0 2 0 1 0 0 13 0.538 0 0 0 0 1
Friar, Nick 0 0-0 1-0 0 0/0 0 3 3 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 12 0.25 0 0 0 0 0
Brooke, Henry 0 0-0 1-0 0 0/0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0.25 0 0 0 0 0
Livingston, Jack 0 0-0 1-0 0 0/0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 0.333 0 0 0 0 0
Quigley, Jack 9.64 0-0 5-0 0 0/0 0 4.2 10 6 5 2 3 0 1 0 19 0.526 1 2 0 0 3
Totals 4.05 8-14 22-22 2 2/2 6 191.1 224 124 86 68 155 39 7 5 732 0.306 11 16 1 8 37
Opponents 4.22 14-8 22-22 2 0/0 7 196 214 110 92 81 146 36 3 9 755 0.283 16 12 4 10 19

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