Huskers roll past Marist
 
Lincoln -- Two-time All-American Shane Komine pitched his second complete-game of the year while notching 12 strikeouts to lead the Nebraska baseball team to a 9-1 win over Marist in front of a school-record 6,891 fans at the NCAA Lincoln Regional at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park on Saturday afternoon.

With the victory, Nebraska (44-18) advances to the NCAA Lincoln Regional championship game on Sunday at 1:05 p.m., where the Huskers will meet the winner of the elimination game between Southwest Missouri State (42-20) and Marist (41-13), which is scheduled for 8:05 p.m.

Komine, a senior right-hander from Honolulu, Hawaii, lost his shutout bid with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning on Ben Cueto�s RBI single to left-centerfield scored Kevin Buck with the Red Foxes only run. Cueto�s hit spoiled a nearly flawless performance by Komine, who allowed just five hits on 97 pitches. After allowing a two-out single to Anthony Bocchino in the first inning, and back-to-back singles to Steve O�Sullivan and Joey Salazar with two outs in the third, Komine was perfect for the next 5.2 innings, allowing just two balls to be hit out of the infield, while striking out nine Red Fox hitters.

Komine improved to 39-8 with 494 strikeouts in his career, edging closer to becoming just the sixth pitcher in NCAA history to post 40 wins and record 500 career strikeouts. It was Komine�s 17 complete game of his career, extending his own record.

While Komine was silencing the Red Fox bats, Nebraska�s offense provided plenty of punch early, scoring a single run in the first before putting up five unearned runs in the second to give Komine more than enough support.

In the Nebraska first, Daniel Bruce knocked a one-out single and moved to third on Jed Morris� 25th double of the season. Matt Hopper then drove in Bruce with a groundout to short to give NU a 1-0 lead.

In the second, John Grose drew a leadoff walk and advanced two second on a bunt single by Will Bolt. The Huskers loaded the bases after an error by Marist third baseman Jimmy Willis on Joe Simokaitis� sacrifice bunt attempt. After Grose was forced at home on a Jeff Leise grounder to first and Bruce popped out to short, Morris gave the Huskers a 3-0 lead with a single to score Bolt and Simokaitis. Hopper followed with an RBI single of his own to score Leise and gave Hopper his 200th career RBI. Jeff Blevins followed with an RBI single to score Morris, before Justin Seely�s RBI single scored Hopper to give Nebraska a commanding 6-0 lead.

After a quiet third inning, Nebraska put up three more runs, sparked by Bruce�s leadoff double, followed by a Morris single and an RBI single for Hopper to give NU a 7-0 edge. After Blevins flew out to center for the first out, Seely reached on a two-base error by Marist first baseman John McGorty, scoring Morris from third, while moving Hopper to third.

The Red Foxes then replaced starter Kevin Ool with Brad Cook, who allowed a Grose sacrifice fly to right field to score Hopper and give NU a 9-0 advantage. Cook then cooled the Husker bats for the final 5.2 innings, allowing just three hits and a walk to go along with five strikeouts.

Ool took the loss, falling to 10-4 on the year after allowing nine runs, two earned, on 10 hits and one walk in 3.1 innings. He did record two strikeouts.

As a team, the Huskers pounded 13 hits for the 10th consecutive game with double-figure hit totals. Morris did the most damage off Ool, recording all three of his hits in the first three innings. The All-American from Seabrook, Texas, finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Hopper added two hits, three RBIs and a pair of runs, while Bolt and Bruce each contributed two hits.

Bolt extended his team-season and career-long hitting streak to 17 games, while Morris stretched his career-long hitting streak to 15 games. Hopper also extended his season-long hitting streak to 10 games.

Nebraska postgame notes
• The Hawks Field at Haymarket Park crowd of 6,891 was a school record, surpassing the 6,331 fans who attended NU�s opening-round game on Friday.
• Nebraska has won eight consecutive games in NCAA Regional competition, dating back to a 13-7 loss to Mississippi State at Columbus, Ohio, on May 29, 1999. The Huskers are 9-2 all-time under Coach Dave Van Horn in NCAA Regional action.
• Nebraska has won 13 of its last 14 games dating back to May 5. The Huskers pounded 13 hits, giving them 10 straight games with double-figure hits, dating back to the Creighton game on May 15.
• Nebraska has scored at least one run in 259 straight games, the second-longest active streak in college baseball.
• Two-time All-American Shane Komine improved to 8-0 on the season with his second complete game of the year.
• Komine improved his career record to 39-8.
• It was Komine�s 17th complete game of his career.
• With 12 strikeouts, Komine recorded the 21st double-figure strikeout performance of his career.
• Komine now owns 494 career strikeouts, drawing him within one victory and six strikeouts of becoming the sixth pitcher in NCAA history to record 40 wins and 500 strikeouts in a career. Komine has 99 strikeouts on the season.
• Catcher Jed Morris went 3-for-4 at the plate for the second straight game, improving to 6-for-8 (.750) in two games of NCAA Regional play. The All-American catcher also has three RBIs and four runs scored in NCAA play.
• With his first-inning double, Morris extended his hitting streak to a career-high 15 games.
• The double was Morris� 25th of the season, moving him into sole possession of second place on the Nebraska season doubles chart, trailing only Mike Duncan�s 26 doubles in 1985.
• Morris� double was his 47th extra-base hit of the year (25 doubles, 1 triple, 21 home runs), eclipsing Darin Erstad�s 46 extra-base hits in 1995 for a school single-season record.
• With his two-RBI single in the second inning, Morris earned his 30th multiple-hit game of the season.
• With 80 RBIs on the season, Morris becomes just the sixth player in Husker history to record 80 or more RBIs in a single-season, ranking him sixth on NU�s season list.
• Will Bolt�s second-inning bunt single extended his team-best hitting streak to 17 games, establishing a career high. Bolt added a single in the fourth inning to improve to 3-for-7 (.429) in two NCAA Tournament games.
• Matt Hopper stretched his hitting streak to 10 games with an RBI single in the second inning. With a 2-for-5 effort against Marist, Hopper improved to 3-for-8 (.375) in two NCAA Regional games with three RBIs and three runs scored.
• John Grose extended his hitting streak to six games with a ninth-inning single.
• Jeff Leise notched his 100th hit of the season with a leadoff single in the eighth, snapping an 0-for-9 slump in the first two NCAA Regional games. He became the sixth Husker to have 100 hits in a season.

Postgame quotes

Nebraska coach Dave Van Horn
Opening statement
�Shane pitched great. His fastball was his secondary pitch today. He threw a lot of curve balls, change-ups and sliders. He threw everything for a strike. It seemed like he was ahead all day. The first inning we came out and just threw fastballs and they hit a couple balls. I think he threw five pitches the first inning and we decided to start mixing it up. He just did a tremendous job. I thought offensively we came out and we made their pitcher throw a lot of pitches. We put together a couple of good innings. We had a great inning going and it looked like it was going to fall apart and then Jed (Morris) came up with a big two-out hit. We ended up getting five runs out after that, and with the way Shane was throwing we knew the game was over. For those of you who noticed, in the fifth inning I stopped running, I stopped bunting and pretty much shut it down. It kind of slowed us down a little bit and we didn�t score any more runs.

On the wild pitch
I was hot because I saw my best hitter get a ball whizzed right behind his head. I was backing him up. I had put in every position player that I had on the 25-man roster. Like I said, we stopped running, we stopped bunting, we stopped running our offense basically in the fifth inning. Drew (Anderson) wasn�t supposed to run. A 3-0 count is not a steal count first off. He made a mistake and then they throw one behind our three-hole hitter�s head on a 3-1 pitch. A foot one way or the other and it might hit him. It got to me a little bit. I got thrown out of the game because I was telling their coaches what I thought about it. If it hits him, what�s going to happen there? We�ve got a major problem there.

On the postseason outlook
�I�ve been telling the team for six weeks when we started playing better and when we were trying to motivate them to play better is hey, look toward the future. Keep thinking about the future. We�re getting all these young pitchers experience, and we�re not even playing with Shane Komine. Then we started playing better, and we were hoping he would come back like that. He had his best week of practice.

On Komine�s performance
�His off-speed stuff was as good as I�ve ever seen it. He just kept throwing it. Maybe it�s easier on his arm. They were swinging at it. He was throwing for strikes. The umpires were calling all of his breaking pitches strikes. I�ve seen him with a better fastball, but he didn�t throw that many.�

Catcher Jed Morris
On the confidence level of the team with Komine pitching well
�That�s the best I�ve seen him pitch in a while. Obviously we�ve had guys step up and play well. We�ve played well without him, but to have a guy like that come back and pitch the way he has in the past, obviously that�s the guy who�s going to be able to take us deeper into the postseason. He helped us get past the Super Regional last year and now he has helped us hopefully get past the regional this year.�

Pitcher Shane Komine
On his performance
�Today was about the best I have felt in six to seven weeks now. I think the reason I was so successful was I was able to throw my pitches for strikes and mix it up. It helps a lot when your offense scores a lot of runs early in the game. The pitcher can�t relax but it takes off a lot of the pressure. It was just one of those games where the offense started us off real well and I just wanted to go out there and give us a chance to win.�

On the fan support
�It really means a lot to me. This is how I want to finish here at Nebraska. These fans here and all the support we�ve been getting, I think it really fires us up and gets us playing at a higher level.�

Marist head coach John Szefc
On the game
"We didn't do a whole bunch of good things today from a defensive standpoint. We ran into one of the toughest arms (Shane Komine) that I have ever seen since I've been coaching or playing college baseball. We pretty much knew Shane was going to be on that level, and he pretty much came out and showed us that he is."

"We kind of hurt ourselves playing some sloppy defense. We kind of ran into his (Komine) brick wall offensively. It just wasn't our ballgame and that is the way it goes sometimes. We will regroup and come back in the night game and be ready to go."

On the atmosphere at Hawks Field
"I don't know if it affected our team, but it is a great advantage for them. It is a great atmosphere to be the home team in. I can't imagine any high school or junior college baseball player not wanting to play baseball at Nebraska because of the support the people give you here. I mean they are into every pitch. I've been to 50 Yankee games in my life at Yankee Stadium. The Yankee crowds, as aggressive as they are, this crowd is just as aggressive, and just as vocal as any crowd I've every seen at Yankee Stadium. Take away the World Series. It is just a great advantage for their team and their players. It is just a great atmosphere for them to play in."

On Shane Komine
"I kind of compare him to the kid that we face from Stanford last year, Jeremy Guthrie. He would try to overpower you a little more, where Shane pitches. He has a good change up and a good breaking ball. Not only does he have outstanding stuff, but he competes and pitches. It is tough. He has three pitches, and he spots them all. He struck out 12 and didn't walk a batter. He is probably one of the best guys I've ever seen at the amateur level.

On the eighth inning
"It was kind of an unfortunate thing. I think that it appeared that we were throwing at a hitter, which wasn't the case. The ball got away from Brad (Cook). Brad at times has problems with his control. He did throw pretty well today, but there is no way we are going to disrespect Nebraska baseball and Dave Van Horn. I have the up most respect for him and his program and the people here. That wouldn't even cross my mind to do that. It is just and unfortunate thing, and it is just too bad it happened that way. It kind of took away from the game a little bit. It is just too bad."

Anthony Bocchino
On Shane Komine
"I just felt he mixed up his fastball and breaking stuff real well, and he located his off-speed stuff. I thought early on he just tried to show his fastball, but as the game went on he started using his breaking ball and off-speed stuff more. He just kept our hitters off balance. It just seemed that our hitter, including myself, weren't making the adjustment to his breaking ball."

Pitcher Kevin Ool
On his performance
"It is definitely frustrating, especially against a good team like that. I know when we give them second opportunites like that they are going to eventually start picking up more runs. Once we made a couple of mistakes, I didn't make the pitches and they started finding holes."

Source: University of Nebraska Athletic Dept.