Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball

Facilities

Hawks Field

From 1979 through 2001, the Cornhuskers played at Buck Beltzer Stadium where they went 527–137. Buck Beltzer seated 1,500 and had an AstroTurf infield and grass outfield. The stadium was shoehorned into a very tight space; right field was adjacent to the south end zone of Memorial Stadium, and first base was across a frontage road from an overpass leading to Interstate 180. The final games at Buck Beltzer were on June 1-2, 2001, when the Cornhuskers swept Rice to win an NCAA Super Regional and advance to the College World Series for the first time.

On July 30, 1999 the university announced plans for Haymarket Park which includes Hawks Field, and a softball field. Hawks Field is named for one of the primary donor families that contributed to the construction of the baseball stadium and Haymarket Park is named because of its location in Lincoln's historic Haymarket District. The Huskers are 251-88-1 (.740) since opening the park on March 5, 2002 with a 23-1 win over Nebraska-Kearney. Nebraska is 12-0 all-time in home openers at Hawks Field continuing their streak of 35 home openers dating back to the 1979 season.

Hawks Field is arguably the finest ballpark in college baseball. Its capacity is 8,500 with 4,500 seats and berms in the outfield. It also has a playground down the right field line. Hawks field is the first collegiate venue to use the SubAir system which can heat and cool the field year round. It was selected as the best playing surface in each of its six years of existence. In November 2007, Hawks Field won the Baseball Field of the Year Award in the College/University division by the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA) for the second time. The field earned its first honor in 2003 and is the only college park in the country to win twice. The Huskers have been in the top 25 for average attendance every year since the move to the field.

A new LED videoboard was installed in 2012 that is nearly three times the size and resolution for the ballpark's original video screen. The widescreen display is 17 feet tall and 34 feet wide, allowing Nebraska's HuskerVision department to display introductions for each player, highlights and live crowd shots during the game.

Alex Gordon Training Complex

The $4.75 million Haymarket Park Indoor Practice Facility is specifically designed for the baseball and softball teams to practice all year. It has 18,000 square feet of climate-controlled practice space that allows for working on all phases of the game. The space can be configured to utilize as many as six spacious batting cages.

The cages can also be retracted to open up all of the 120-foot by 150-foot space for live game simulation. The entire facility is netted, allowing for the Huskers to take live batting practice. The field turf surface looks and feels like real grass, and the field includes anchors to lock down bases for use during practices.

Coaches from 1889–1977

John Sanders (1978–1997)

John Sanders compiled a 767–453–1 record in his 20 years. He had only 2 losing seasons, including his last season. He produced 3 NCAA Tournament teams making his first appearance in 1979 and made it again in 1980. The only other time under Sanders was in 1985. All three teams never made it to the Super Regional. In 1997, the Big Eight turned into the Big 12 in his final season before being fired for his teams inconsistencies.

Dave Van Horn (1998–2002)

Nebraska baseball has seen a resurgence in recent years. Much of the success of these teams and the teams that have followed is due to the efforts of Dave Van Horn, who compiled a record of 214–92 and 3 straight Big 12 Tournament championships while leading Huskers from 1998–2002. He posted a 16–3 mark in four years of Big 12 Tournament play and a 15–9 record in the NCAA Tournament.

He was chosen as the ABCA Midwest Region Coach of the Year in 2000. He also earned Big 12 Conference Coach-of-the-Year honors before his selection as NCAA Coach of the Year by Baseball America in 2001.

1998–2000

Van Horn was hired just 35 days before the 1998 season and led the Huskers to a 24–20 record and a 7th-place finish in the Big 12.

In 1999, they won the Big 12 Tournament championship, marking the school's first conference title of any kind since 1950. Nebraska reached the first NCAA Tournament appearance in 14 seasons. They finished with a 42–18 record. Ken Harvey was the lone Husker to be a Big 12 first teamer and Shane Komine became the freshman of the year.

After many years of being a perennial doormat, the 2000 Huskers became the first team in school history to advance to the Super Regionals in the NCAA tournament but fell one game shy of the College World Series. Dan Johnson, Justin Cowan, Matt Hopper, and Shane Komine earned First Team Big 12 Honors. Also, Shane Komine became the Big 12 Player of the Year, Dan Johnson became the newcomer player of the year, and Matt Hopper became the freshman player of the year.

2001 : 1st CWS

In 2001, the Huskers were ranked as high as 4th in the nation starting the season in the top 10 for the first time in team history. They started off going 2–3 but won their next 13 games. They captured a conference best 20–8 mark in Big 12 play after winning a series against Texas and sweeping Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Baylor, and Oklahoma State. The Huskers got their first regular-season conference crown since 1950. The pitchers had great outings en route to a 4–0 performance winning the Big 12 Tournament for the 3rd consecutive time. They are the first team to win Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles in the same season. They were number 8 overall in the NCAA tournament and hosted a regional for the first time in team history getting wins over Northern Iowa and Rutgers. They advanced to the Super Regional facing Rice who beat the Huskers 16–2 in the season opener. Nebraska beat Rice in the 1st two games and got their first chance to play in the College World Series but lost their 2 games and were eliminated.

The '01 Huskers finished with a 50–16 record, their 2nd straight 50 win season. They produced a 23–4 record at home including nine straight victories before closing stadium gates for the last time. The Huskers ranked in the top 10 nationally with their .334 average and 9.20 runs per game, while leading the Big 12 in 10 categories, including hitting, runs scored, walks, homers and stolen bases. The team produced 4 All-Americans: Shane Komine, Dan Johnson, John Cole and Matt Hopper. They also produced All-Big 12 First Teamers: Shane Komine, Dan Johnson, John Cole, Matt Hopper, Thom Ott, and Jeff Leise. Shane Komine was also the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year.

2002 : A new home

2002 was the first year that Nebraska played at Hawks Field. The '02 campaign started off well going 7–3 before playing against Big 12 opponents. The Huskers swept 7 teams during the entire season helping the Huskers with an 11-game win streak from the end of the regular season to the Big 12 Tournament until they lost to Texas in the tournament final. Coach Dave Van Horn picked up the 200th victory in his Husker coaching career with a 4–3 win over Cal Poly on May 10, near the end of the regular season. Nebraska got to host another regional and won its third straight regional title, sweeping the board and outscoring its opponents 30–6 in three games over Southwest Missouri State, Marist, and UW-Milwaukee. They hosted Richmond in the Super Regionals and won the series 2–1 earning a ticket to Omaha for the 2nd straight season. Like 2001, the Huskers were eliminated in their 2 games being defeated by Clemson and South Carolina.

The Huskers ended with a 47–21 record. The hitters have been plunked an amazing 95 times in 66 games, a total which is not only a single-season record, but the 10th-highest total in NCAA history. Jed Morris was awarded to the All Big-12 team, became the Big 12 Player of the Year, and was the first catcher in school history to earn All-America honors. Jeff Leise also earned All-American and All-Big 12 honors. Aaron Marsden was the only other Husker to be on the All-Big 12 team. After the 2002 season, Van Horn left to accept the head coaching job at his alma mater, Arkansas; Mike Anderson became head coach after 8 seasons as assistant coach.

Mike Anderson (2003–2011)

In his 9 seasons, Mike Anderson guided the Huskers to a 337–196–2 record. He was awarded the Big 12 Coach of the Year Award in 2003, and 2005. He has a Big 12 Tournament record of 13–10 and a NCAA Tournament record of 12–10.

2003–2004

The Huskers were better than expexcted under first year Mike Anderson. They were picked fourth in the league by the Big 12 coaches in the preseason. Nebraska started off winning 11 of their first 13 games. They won 8 of their 9 conference series going 20–7 and becoming the Big 12 regular-season conference winner. They went 2–2 in the Big 12 Tournament winning their first two but lost the next two. The Huskers hosted a Regional but were eliminated by Southwestern Missouri State. They ended the season with a 47–18 mark.

Matt Hopper became an All-Big 12 honoree for the 3rd time, and became the Big 12 player of the Year. Aaron Marsden became the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year. Curtis Ledbetter and Quinton Robertson also earned First Team All-Big 12 honors. Alex Gordon earned Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-America honors and became the Big 12 Freshman of the Year.

The bad for Nebraska in 2004 was finishing 36–23 and placing 8th in the Big 12 with a conference 11–16 record. It was the first time that Nebraska hasn’t finished first or second in the league since 1999. The May 16 loss at Baylor marked the first time that Nebraska had been swept in league play since the 2000 season. After going 1–2 in the Big 12 Tournament, they didn't make it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998.

The good is that the Husker pitchers issued a league-low 2.77 walks per nine innings. They went at least 45 innings without an error three times. The Huskers scored five or more runs in an inning 12 times in 11 games. Alex Gordon was the lone Husker All-American.

2005 : Husker history

The '05 Huskers had their most successful season ever. They started off sweeping a 5-game series over Hawaii-Hilo. After coming back from Hawaii, they went an outstanding 20–3. They won 8 of their 9 Big 12 Conference Series losing their only series to Texas 1–2. They won the regular season crown and were ready for the Big 12 Tournament. They lost their first game but came back and won their next 5 games winning the tournament. The Huskers hosted a regional winning their 3 games and winning the Super Regional at home sweeping Miami in 2 games. They advanced to the College World Series for the third time in five years. They beat Arizona State is the first game but lost to Florida. The Huskers played Arizona State again but lost and were done in 3 games. The win against Arizona State was Nebraska's first CWS win in Husker history.

They recorded a team record 57–15 (more wins than any teams in '05) and the .791 winning percentage also easily beat the previous best of .771 set in 1982. They had two 11 game win streaks during the season, once during non-conference play and once in the postseason. The Huskers finished 33–4 at Hawks Field breaking the previous single-season home mark for wins of 29 set four times (1980, 1988, 2002 and 2003). Starting pitchers went a combined 40–5 this season and won 15 straight decisions until Johnny Dorn’s loss to Florida on June 19 at the College World Series. Nebraska had 20 come-from-behind wins all season. Nebraska led the Big 12 and ranked second nationally in ERA.

Nebraska produced great players in Alex Gordon who won the National player of the Year Award, became an All-American, earned First Team All-Big 12 honors, and became the Big 12 Player of the Year. Johnny Dorn won the Freshman Big 12 Pitcher of the Year, became a Freshman All-American, and earned First Team All-Big 12 honors. Joba Chamberlain won the Big 12 Newcomer Pitcher of the Year, and earned First Team All-Big 12 honors. Tony Watson became a Freshman All-American. Curtis Ledbetter earned First Team All-Big 12 honors.

The End of the Big 12: 2006–2011

In 2006, Nebraska sprinted into the top 5 nationally, and was looking poised to make it back to Omaha for the College World Series. They were ranked as high as number 2 nationally and swept 3 Big 12 teams. However, Nebraska ran into a huge late season slump losing 8 of their last 11 regular season games and losing their last 3 Big 12 series. They were 3–0 in the Big 12 Tournament going into the championship game but lost to Kansas 7–9. They managed to host a regional, only to go two and out and bow out early ending with a 42–17 record. Brandon Buckman, Ryan Wehrle, Luke Gorsett, Tony Watson, and Brett Jensen earned First Team All Big 12 honors.

Collegiate Baseball tabbed the 2007 Huskers 9th in their preseason poll. The team started off strong but quickly began to show their youth and inexperience. They were very inconsistent throughout the season going only 14–13 in Big 12 games. They ended up placing 4th in the Big 12 and qualifying as the 3rd seed for the Tempe Regional. They went 2–1 before being defeated by Arizona State in the championship game. They finished the season 32–27.

While 8 pitchers from 2007 left for the draft, the 2008 Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team was the youngest for Mike Anderson with 15 newcomers. The Huskers started the season 11–3 and were strong in the Big 12 winning 7 of their 9 series going 17–9–1 in conference play. From February 29 to March 18, the Huskers earned their longest win streak since 2000 at 14 games. Compared to 2006, the team slumped at the end of the season going 2–4 in the postseason and losing their home regional. They went 29–5–1 at home and 11–9 away from Hawks Field. They were ranked as high as No. 5 and ended in 3rd place in the Big 12. Jake Opitz, Mitch Abeita, and Johnny Dorn were selected to the All Big 12 First Team as Dorn also earned 3rd Team All-American honors.

2009 was a disappointing season for the Big Red. It was the worst season since 1997 going 25–28–1 with an 8–19 conference record. It was the first time they didn't make the Big 12 tournament and didn't make a regional for the first time in 5 years. Hoping to come back from a down season, the 2010 and 2011 Huskers improved but were still not able to make the Big 12 tournament or an NCAA regional going 27–27 and 30–24 respectively.

New coach, new conference

Before moving to the Big Ten Conference, Mike Anderson and the entire coaching staff were terminated on May 22, 2011 after going 82–79–1 and missing the Big 12 tournament the last three seasons and the University of Nebraska hired former Husker and Major League All-Star Darin Erstad on June 2, 2011 to replace Mike Anderson as head coach of the team after 1 season as a volunteer assistant coach. A few days later, Ted Silva was hired as pitching coach as well as former huskers Will Bolt as associate head coach and Jeff Christy as volunteer assistant coach.

2012–2013

The Huskers made the post season for the first time in four years in 2012, qualifying for the Big Ten Tournament, going 1-2, but failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament.

In 2013, the team played a difficult nonconference schedule to begin the season, with games against ranked opponents Cal State Fullerton and Texas. Partly due to the difficulty of the schedule, the team started the season 0-7, its worst start since 1976. Nebraska did however pick up a signature win for Coach Erstad on April 16, 2013 defeating the Arkansas Razorbacks by a score of 3-0 using 3 pitchers to combine for a no-hitter against former coach Dave Van Horn and the #12 Razorbacks. It was the 8th no-hitter in program history. Nebraska ended the season with the #31 RPI in the country, but its 29-30 record did not allow for a postseason at-large bid.

Post-Season Appearances

Rivalries

Nebraska competes in an in-state rivalry with the Creighton Bluejays of Omaha, Nebraska. The Huskers and Bluejays play a 3-game series each year, switching venues for each game. Creighton's original home field is the Creighton Sports Complex, although they occasionally played home games at Rosenblatt Stadium and now play at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha. The Huskers defeated the Bluejays 2–1 in the first game played at TD Ameritrade on April 19, 2011. Nebraska lead the series 72-48-2.

Nebraska 50, Chicago State 3 (7 inn.) (March 16, 1999)

The Huskers made national headlines in 1999 after posting the most lopsided win in NCAA history at Buck Beltzer Stadium. On March 16, 1999, NU players and coaches took part in an amazing contest that had reporters and coaches calling from across the country to see if the score was correct.

After defeating Chicago State, 15–3, in game one of a doubleheader, the Huskers opened the second game of the twinbill by scoring nine runs in the first inning. That was just the beginning, as Nebraska went on to win by a score of 50–3, setting NCAA marks for runs scored (50), margin of victory (47) and RBIs (48). The previous NCAA Division I mark for runs in a game was held by West Chester (Pa.), which scored 42 against Philadelphia Textile on April 7, 1992. The previous margin of victory was 41 set in the West Chester game, as the Golden Rams defeated Philadelphia Textile, 42–1. Georgia Tech also posted a 41–0 win over Earlham (Ind.) on March 21, 1975. The 48 runs batted in by Nebraska shattered the NCAA Division I mark for RBIs in a game. The previous best was 37 by West Chester against Philadelphia Textile and by Clemson against North Carolina State on April 6, 1979.

Nebraska scored nine runs in the first, 10 in the second, four in the third, nine in the fourth, 13 in the fifth and five in the sixth, as the game was called in the seventh inning because of the 12-run rule. Eight Huskers belted nine home runs in the game. Ken Harvey hit two homers, and Scott Larsen, Adam Stern and Brian Kent hit their first career home runs. Besides setting school team records for runs (50), RBIs (48) and hits (35), Harvey, Jim Bailey and Craig Moore each established or tied individual school records. Harvey and Bailey each scored seven runs in the game, while Moore became the third player in school history to drive in 10 runs in a game. Bailey, who only had two official at bats, walked five times to tie a 50-year-old school record. Tom Novak held the previous mark of five set against Denver College on April 18, 1949. In the game, Nebraska scored the first 23 runs before the Cougars had a base runner, as Husker pitchers retired the first nine Cougar hitters. Eleven Huskers had at least two hits and seven had at least three hits.

Jay Sirianni earned the win by pitching to six batters in the first two innings, as four Huskers held Chicago State to just three runs on three hits.

Nebraska 1, Texas 0 (15 inn.) (March 28, 2015)

The Husker's made national headlines after a series-clinching extra inning win over the Texas Longhorns. On March 28, 2015, the Husker's squared off against the Texas Longhorns in game that consisted of a mid-game no hitter, 12 total hits, 1 run and 27 strikeouts.

The Longhorns came into Lincoln, Nebraska as the 16th best team in the country and one year removed from being in the College World Series. The Longhorns were the heavy favorite heading into the weekend series but found themselves down in the series after being defeated Friday night by the Huskers. In front of a crowd of 5,852, the Husker's made history. The Husker pitching staff combined for 19 strikeouts, 3 walks, 4 hits, 210 pitches thrown and 15 innings of work. The impressive part about this stat line wouldn't of even been noticed unless you attended the game. The Husker pitching staff threw 9 innings of no-hit baseball during this 15 inning marathon. From the 4th inning to the 14th inning, the Longhorns were unable to record a single hit off the Husker pitching staff of Kyle Kubat, Jake Hohensee, Colton Howell and Jeff Chesnut. These four pitchers were honored with the Louisville Slugger National Players of the week award; for the first time in NCAA history, this award was given to four pitchers from the same school, in the same week. Kubat threw 8.0 innings, Hohensee 2.0, Howell 2.2 and Chesnut 2.1 as well as the win.

The Husker offense had numerous opportunities to score in extra innings as they had base runners in scoring position in the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 15th inning. They even had bases loaded twice during this streak but were unable to push across any runs against a tough Longhorn bullpen. In the 15th inning, the Husker's finally won after an RBI base hit by Austin Darby which scored Tanner Lubach from second base.

The Husker's went on to sweep the Texas Longhorn's that weekend, due in part to the dominant pitching that happened all weekend. The Husker pitching staff allowed just 3 runs in 33 innings of work (1 run Friday, 0 runs Saturday and 2 runs Sunday). During this 33 inning stretch, the Husker pitching staff also recorded 33 strikeouts with just 5 walks. This was the most strikeouts in a single weekend for Coach Erstad since he took over in 2012.

All-Americans

Major Leaguers