Welcome to Nebraska Weekly! This is where we review the biggest highlights of Nebraska’s weekend, preview what lies ahead for Husker Athletics and – whenever possible – touch on any of the latest reports and rumors on Nebraska football, basketball, volleyball, baseball and more.
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Here are our other top three stories of the weekend in Husker Athletics:
In case you missed it – and, come on, how could you have missed it? – both the Nebraska men’s and women’s basketball teams secured berths in the NCAA Tournament.
And both teams, naturally, will face off against Texas A&M in their first-round matchups: Fred Hoiberg’s crew as a No. 8 seed (Friday at 5:50 p.m. CT) and Amy Williams’ squad as a No. 6 seed.
A juicy, juicy, JUICY storyline and matchup in both cases that was drummed up by both the men’s selection committee and the women’s selection committee.
Was it all purely coincidental? Maybe. Maybe not. But likely not.
Either way, read up more on the men’s team matching up with the Aggies HERE and check out more on the women’s team’s matchup HERE.
Nebraska baseball did all its chores this weekend … including sweeping.
The Huskers are on an absolute tear of late, having won 12 of their last 15 since starting the season 1-2 – including wins in 10 of their last 12 games.
Nebraska (13-5) has won all four of its weekend series to begin the season, taking a 3-1 road series over Grand Canyon, a three-game road sweep over College of Charleston, a 2-1 series win over South Alabama in the Huskers’ first homestand of the year and, most recently, their second sweep in the season’s first month with a three-game cleaning of Nicholls State’s clock.
The Huskers won their three games by a combined score of 33-10. Josh Caron (5-for-10, HR, two 2Bs, six RBI, six R, three BB and just one K across three games) and Will Walsh (5-for-8, two HR including a grand slam, eight RBI, five R, one BB, one HBP and no K across two games) were the ones who powered the Huskers at the plate in the three-game homestand.
Read up more on Game 1 here, Game 2 here and Game 3 here from our new contributing writer Jonah Waits.
The softball team, meanwhile, is likewise on a roll of its own.
After Rhonda Revelle’s crew dipped below the .500 mark five days ago in a 5-3 loss to Northern Colorado, the Huskers have climbed their way back by rattling off five consecutive wins. Three of those victories came in blowout fashion over Northern Colorado (12-4 in six innings on Sunday), run-rule victories in five innings over both Maine (10-0 last Tuesday) and Creighton (9-0 on Saturday).
The other two came in thrilling fashion: The Huskers rallied in two straight games and won on back-to-back walk-offs against Northern Colorado on Thursday (6-5 in 10 innings) and North Dakota on Friday (11-10).
Against Northern Colorado, Nebraska trailed 5-0 through five frames but scored three runs in the sixth and two runs in the seventh to force extra innings. After a scoreless eighth and ninth inning, Nebraska claimed the victory when Alina Felix delivered a walk-off RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the 10th.
Against North Dakota, Samantha Bland powered a walk-off two-run homer to cap the come-from-behind victory. Nebraska trailed 4-0 after a half inning of play, 7-3 after an inning and a half and 10-7 after three-and-half innings but rallied to win on a walk-off hit for the second night in a row.
The Huskers’ first lead of the game came when Bland took a 2-2 pitch over the wall in center to cap a terrific night. The freshman went 4-for-5 with two doubles, a homer and three RBIs while scoring a pair of runs. She set a career high in hits and matched her career high in doubles.
One week from today, the Husker football team’s spring practice season will officially be underway.
In order to preview both the spring slate and this Wednesday’s Pro Day, Matt Rhule will be coming to the podium on Monday morning for his first press conference with Nebraska media since February’s signing day.
I’m sure he will be asked a question or two about Trev Alberts. Stay locked in with Inside Nebraska for all of our live updates from the press conference with news, analysis and feature stories to follow. And be sure to subscribe for free to the Inside Nebraska YouTube channel for the fastest way to watch Rhule’s press conference shortly after he wraps up.
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