clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Husker Softball, Baseball Open Thread

Softball starts play at the NCAA Regionals in Columbia Missouri

By Keith Yaple

Nebraska kicks off a busy weekend of action with the start of NCAA Regional Softball, and the end of the regular season of Big Ten Baseball. Nebraska Softball travels to Columbia Missouri for a 4:30 nationally televised contest with Louisville, while Baseball ends their conference slate with a home series against Indiana.

Nebraska has played Louisville twice this season as part of the the Big Ten and ACC Challenge series. Nebraska took both games from the Cardinals winning 4-3 and 3-0 back on February 20th and 21st respectively.

The key for the Huskers will be to get good pitching from whoever starts this afternoon. When Nebraska can limit their opponent to under five runs, Nebraska is 29-4. All three of Nebraska's pitchers were used against Louisville, with Emily Lockman throwing a complete game shutout. Rolling with Lockman looks to the best option for the Huskers.

Meanwhile, back in Lincoln the Nebraska Baseball team coming off a huge victory against the Creighton Blue Jays returns home to face the Indiana Hoosiers. Derek Burkamper gets another start on the mound while Kyle Hart heads to the bump for the Hoosiers.

Indiana will not make the NCAA Tournament unless they win the Big Ten Tournament next week in Omaha, but the Hoosiers have been hot in league play. Indiana has won six straight league series, including notable wins at Michigan State and Minnesota.

Hart and the entire Indiana pitching staff have extreme command as they have combined to punch out 375 batters this season while only walking 117. Hart who has ten wins this season, has 70 strikeouts in 87.1 innings pitched. Hart does lead the Indiana team with eight long balls given up on the season, a good sign for Nebraska and Scott Schreiber specifically.

More From Corn Nation