NU disappointed, but proud of tenacity

TEMPE, Ariz. - Sapped by a full day in the Arizona sun, and tapped out in pitching, the Nebraska baseball team bowed out of the NCAA regional Sunday night with the kind of fight Mike Anderson could appreciate.

On Sunday afternoon, the Huskers, who came in as the third of four seeds, had eliminated their second opponent, UC Riverside.

Then, under the lights in Packard Stadium, they were threatening to force No. 5 national seed Arizona State into a Monday night rematch to determine which club would advance to a best-of-three super regional series against Mississippi.

Nebraska had clawed back from a 9-3 deficit and had the momentum, down just 9-7 after scoring three runs in the top of the seventh. But hoped faded fast in the bottom half of the inning, when CJ Retherford hit a grand slam off Matt Foust to start a two-inning barrage in which the nation's top-scoring team put up 10 unanswered runs to punctuate a 19-7 victory.

“We knew if we were going to have a chance at 'em, we were going to have to play a pretty darn good baseball game all around,” Anderson said. “It was 9-7 in the seventh and I felt like we had something going, but you've got to give credit to what ASU was doing.”

The outcome marked the second time in three years Nebraska's season had come to an end against the Sun Devils. This one wasn't nearly as dramatic as ASU's 8-7, 11-inning triumph in the 2005 College World Series, but left the Huskers feeling similar.

NU's longest winning streak of the season had been four games, and after it lost to Cal Riverside 10-5 on Friday, it knew it would have to match that to stay alive.

The Huskers then rallied for a 6-5 win against Monmouth on Saturday before Johnny Dorn gutted his way through 145 pitches to produce a complete-game five-hitter in Sunday's 11-1 win against Riverside.

But when Retherford went deep to left field, they were on fumes.

“You could say that we didn't win and so you shouldn't be satisfied, but there's also a side where we did battle through a lot of things,” junior designated hitter Jeff Tezak said. “We went through a lot this year and a lot of that is satisfying, to come through and still feel like you're on top and still feel like you battled. We did that, and that leaves us with a good feeling.“

Nebraska - which won five of its final six Big 12 Conference series to finish fourth - had preseason All-American shortstop Ryan Wehrle and senior pitcher Mike Harmelink dismissed from the team during the season, and also lost starting catcher Mitch Abeita and pitcher Charlie Shirek to injuries at the Big 12 Tournament.

“With this club, we've been talking about the fight and learning to battle for each other,” Anderson said. “At the end of the year, these kids learned how to do that.”

“Losing's never good, but the mood for next year, it's not on a bad note,” said junior third baseman Craig Corriston, who's among seven lineup regulars who could return next season. “I feel like we ended up strong.”

n Briefly - Three Huskers - left fielder Andy Gerch, first baseman Andrew Brown and Corriston - were named to the all-regional team.