It was a decent start to baseball season. It was especially nice to see the Huskers generate some offense, 47 runs over four games is pretty decent. Having 21 in the first game certainly skews the total, but, hey, what do you want to start the season?

Some other Big Ten teams had good opening weekends as Illinois, Penn State, Michigan, and Ohio State all swept their opponents. This sounds good at this point. Purdue had a particularly crappy opening weekend, losing all three to S And Rutgers did what they’ve done for a while now, open at Miami and lose all their games.

I was surprised to see Minnesota go 1-3 against Gonzaga, New Mexico, and Oregon State. The Gophers faced Gonzaga in their NCAA regional last season. Oregon State will get a series against Nebraska this coming weekend. Remember they won last year’s national title.

A nice thing about baseball starting up again is you get to read Eric Sorenson’s baseball columns:

The Ouch List: Opening Weekend • D1Baseball

– Purdue

What Happened: Lost all three at Southern Miss

Why It Hurts: Blown opportunities for quality wins

Like SLU above, this is certainly not a big “ouch” on the Ouch List pain scale since USM is going to be a Regional team this June. But the part that hurts is that the Boilermakers blew leads in all three games, including that painful 6-5 lead going into the bottom of the ninth inning of Friday’s 7-6, 10-inning loss. I get the feeling that the Boilers will be good again this year, for sure. In fact, I can’t wait to see what they do at Texas this coming weekend.

Jaxson Hallmark Won The Big Ten Baseball Player of the Week Award

From the AD release:

Sophomore Jaxon Hallmark earned Big Ten Player-of-the-Week honors after leading Nebraska’s offense during its series victory at UC Riverside over the weekend.

Hallmark went 8-for-18 with 10 RBIs, two doubles, five runs scored and one stolen base, as the Huskers took 3-of-4 games against the Highlanders to open the season. He also made his pitching debut, throwing 0.2 scoreless inning of relief in Game 2 of Saturday’s doubleheader.

In Friday’s season opener, Hallmark set career highs for hits (4) and RBIs (5) to help NU to a 21-6 drubbing of UC Riverside. Before taking to the mound on Saturday, Hallmark went 3-for-4 with four RBIs during the second game of the doubleheader.

A native of Midland, Texas, Hallmark was a member of the Big Ten All-Freshman Team last season.

News

Bubble Watch: Which Big Ten Teams Will Make The NCAA Tournament? - Off Tackle Empire
With roughly six games to go for all Big Ten teams, who is poised to make an NCAA Tournament bid?

Penn State Basketball Preview vs Nebraska - Black Shoe Diaries
Can the Nittany Lions make it three wins in their last five games when the Cornhuskers come to town on Tuesday night?

The AAF nearly ran out of money before its second week, per report - SBNation.com
A $250 million investment kept the fledgling league afloat.

Ohio Bobcats preview 2019: Frank Solich still getting better - SBNation.com
The 75-year old is still looking for his first MAC title, but his Bobcats will be as dangerous as anyone in 2019.

Lacrosse player forced to sit out because his head is too big to fit a helmet - SBNation.com
There isn’t a solution in sight.

What we know about Nick Ward’s injury - The Only Colors
How long is he out? Who takes his place?

Ohio State targets take over Rivals Top 10 - Land-Grant Holy Land
Rivals unveiled its new top-10 prospects for the 2020 recruiting class—and it is littered with Buckeye targets.

Illinois Baseball starts season off with three-game sweep - The Champaign Room
The Illini got an impressive win over the weekend against No. 20 Wake Forest.

Baseball: Three up and three down from 2019 opening weekend - Inside NU
Northwestern went 2-2 in Arizona over the weekend. Not bad.

Iowa Basketball Takes on Maryland - Black Heart Gold Pants
Can Iowa win a game WITHOUT putting its fans at risk for having a stroke?

Then There’s This

Debunking the Myths of Robert Capa on D-Day

Our project, in a nutshell, dismantles the 74-year-old myth of Robert Capa’s actions on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and the subsequent fate of his negatives. If you have even a passing familiarity with the history of photojournalism, or simply an awareness of twentieth-century cultural history on both sides of the Atlantic, you’ve surely heard the story; it’s been repeated hundreds, possibly thousands of times:

Perhaps none of you will care about this story, but being a photographer most of my life I found it interesting. I first heard the story of Capa and the “melted film” back when I was a photography student at UNL. It made the guy famous. I’m not sure if the writer of this story has an axe to grind, or if there’s something to what he’s saying.

It was a long story. Thoughts?