Komine and Huskers handcuff Richmond, 2-0
 
Lincoln -- Two-time All-American Shane Komine capped a perfect home career by slinging a four-hit complete-game shutout to propel the Nebraska baseball team to a 2-0 victory over the Richmond Spiders in the NCAA Super Regional at Hawks Field in Lincoln on Friday to move the Huskers within one win of the College World Series.

A school-record crowd of 8,474 watched Komine baffle the Spiders for nine innings for his second consecutive complete game to finish off a perfect 20-0 home career as a Husker hurler. Komine notched six strikeouts to become just the sixth pitcher in NCAA history to record 40 wins and 500 strikeouts in his career.

The Huskers improved to 46-18 overall and 1-0 in the best of three Super Regional series, while the Spiders fell to 52-12 overall.

Richmond right-hander Tim Stauffer suffered the loss to fall to 15-3 on the year, despite holding the Huskers to six hits in a complete game of his own. Stauffer posted six strikeouts to match Komine nearly pitch for pitch, but two hit batsmen and four Spider errors proved costly.

Nebraska jumped to a 1-0 lead at the end of the first inning, after Stauffer hit freshman Daniel Bruce with an 0-1 pitch to give the Huskers their first baserunner. It was the 25th time that Bruce had been hit this season, breaking the previous school record of 24 by Corey Miller in 1996. Bruce advanced to third on a Jed Morris single that hit the second-base bag and trickled into center field. Bruce scored on Matt Hopper�s sacrifice fly to center to give Komine all the run support he would need.

Stauffer hit Bruce again with two outs in the fifth inning, but a Husker rally stalled with runners at first and second, as Stauffer struck Morris out looking to end the inning.

The Huskers added an unearned run in the seventh inning, after freshman Joe Simokaitis knocked a leadoff single and moved to second on Jeff Leise�s sacrifice bunt. Bruce figured into the scoring mix again by hitting a slow chopper to the left side of the mound, which Stauffer tried to field barehanded, but dropped two times, to allow Bruce to reach first and move Simokaitis to third. That error set up Morris� sacrifice fly to center field to give Komine and the Huskers a 2-0 lead.

Komine�s performance was one of the most dominant of his career, nearly matching his three-hit complete-game shutout of Rice in last year�s NCAA Super Regional. In that game, Komine surrendered just two hits, while striking out 12 to pitch the Huskers to a 7-0 win on June 1, 2001.

Against the Spiders, Komine allowed just one runner to reach third base, and just four runners to get as far as second base. Richmond�s only serious threat came in the third inning, after a leadoff single by Bobby LeNoir and a sacrifice bunt by John Cronin put LeNoir at second base with one out and the top of the order coming up. Bryan Pritz continued the rally by reaching on a Simokaitis throwing error to put runners at second and third with one out. But Komine got David Reaver to pop out to Simokaitis before getting third-team All-American Matt Craig to ground out to Komine to end the inning.

After the third, only one Spider reached as far as second base, as Komine cruised through a 115-pitch performance without walking a batter and only going to a three-ball count on one hitter. He got his 500th career strikeout by shooting down Vito Chiaravalloti on three pitches for the second out in the ninth inning.

Six different Huskers recorded hits on the afternoon, including singles by Morris and Will Bolt to extend their hitting streaks to 17 and 19 games, respectively. Hopper�s sixth-inning double also stretched his season-long streak to 12 games.

The Huskers will square off again with Richmond tomorrow at 1:05 p.m. with a chance to clinch a spot in their second straight College World Series. The Huskers will throw sophomore left-hander Aaron Marsden (8-1, 2.23 ERA), while the Spiders are expected to answer with sophomore left-hander Thomas Martin (7-0, 3.18 ERA).

Nebraska notes
• The Hawks Field at Haymarket Park crowd of 8,474 was the first sellout in school history at Hawks Field and the largest home crowd to witness a Nebraska baseball game. Friday�s attendance surpassed the 6,917 fans that attended the championship game of the NCAA Regional at Lincoln on Sunday, June 2. It was also the largest crowd in Haymarket Park history for either a professional or college game.
• Nebraska has won three consecutive games in NCAA Super Regional play, improving to 4-2 in Super Regional play under Coach Dave Van Horn.
• Nebraska has won 15 of its last 16 games dating back to May 5.
• Nebraska�s 2-0 shutout victory over Richmond marked the Spiders� first shutout of the season. The last time Richmond was shut out came on May 6, 2001, in a 1-0 loss at Virginia Commonwealth in seven innings. Tim Stauffer also took the loss in that game. Richmond had scored in 67 straight games before today�s loss.
• The last time Richmond was shut out in a nine-inning game was March 27, 2001, at Virginia (1-0).
• The four hits by the Spiders also tied their season low.
• The Huskers managed just six hits against Richmond�s Tim Stauffer, stopping a streak of 12 straight games with double-figure hit totals, dating back to the Creighton game on May 15. The six hits marked the second-lowest total for Nebraska this season, trailing only five-hit performances against Texas Tech on March 23 and at Texas on May 4 - both NU losses.
• Nebraska�s run in the first inning marked the 38th time in 64 games that the Huskers have scored at least one run in the first inning. Nebraska has scored at least one run in 261 straight games, the second-longest active streak in college baseball.
• Two-time All-American Shane Komine improved to 9-0 on the season with his second consecutive complete game and third complete game of the season. It was Komine�s 18th career complete game.
• Komine improved his career record to 40-8, and recorded six strikeouts to increase his career total to 500, making him just the sixth pitcher in NCAA history to win 40 games and record 500 striketouts. Komine has 105 strikeouts on the season.
• The shutout was Komine�s first of the season and fourth of his career.
• Komine finished his career with a perfect 20-0 record at home.
• It was Komine�s second consecutive complete-game shutout in NCAA Super Regional play. Last season, Komine tossed a three-hitter with 12 strikeouts in a 7-0 victory over Rice on June 1, 2001.
• Daniel Bruce was hit by pitch in the first and third innings, giving him a school single-season record of 26 on the season, breaking Corey Miller�s mark of 24 set in 1996. Nebraska�s 95 hit by pitches this season is also a school record. Bruce scored the game-winning run after his first-inning HBP.
• With a single in the first inning, Jed Morris extended his hitting streak to a career-high 17 games.
• With a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning, which scored Joe Simokaitis, Morris has had at least one RBI in eight straight games.
• Will Bolt�s second-inning single extended his team-best hitting streak to 19 games, establishing a career high.
• Matt Hopper stretched his hitting streak to 12 games with his sixth-inning double off the left-field wall. That hit was the only extra-base hit of the game for either team. Hopper also drove in Daniel Bruce with the winning run on a sacrifice fly in the first inning, giving him the school record with 14 career sacrifice flies.
• Jeff Leise posted his 105th hit of the season, moving him within four hits of Francis Collins� school record 109 hits in 1997. Ken Harvey sits in second place with 107 hits in 1999.

NCAA super regional quotes

Nebraska head coach Dave Van Horn
On the game
�That was a great game, especially if you are a baseball purist. Take away some of the bad defense, this game was just a classic.�

�It was a great ball game. Both teams played extremely hard. Both teams left runner on and had a chance to chip away and take the lead. I�m just glad Shane (Komine) was able to pitch out of a couple of jams and we could scratch across a couple of runs.�

On the pitching
�To me, you just saw the two best right-handed pitchers in college baseball. Those are the two best I�ve seen this year. We have faced some good right-handers, but I don�t think we have faced one that good, and I think we have one that is just as good on our team.�

On the scoring
�Who would have thought that one run in the first inning would have been enough.�

On Shane Komine�s 20-0 record at home
�It is almost hard to believe, 20-0 or something in there, and what does he have, 500 strikeouts. There are only a handful of pitchers at the college level who have ever done that. He did it battling some injuries through a couple of years and a lot this year. He has been the backbone of our pitching staff for four straight seasons. From the day he walked on campus in August of 1998, we knew he was going to be our ace after we saw him playing catch that first day. It has been incredible.�

Nebraska starting pitcher Shane Komine
On how important getting the first win was
�It was very important. I just wanted to go out in front of the home fans and get off on the right foot, and finish the way we did.�

On the third inning
�That was a big play for us. That could have turned the game around. They could have taken the lead with that. That double play kind of turned the game around for us.�

On being one win away from Omaha
�We have learned from the past two years. Down at Stanford (in 2000), I think we got a little bit excited after winning that first game. Last year, we won the first game and came out with the same intensity for the second game. We weren�t too high or too low, we just came out with a real fire that we wanted to get to Omaha. Right now, we have gotten a step closer, but we have haven�t gotten anywhere yet. We have to go out there tomorrow and score one more run than they do.�

On pitching at home
�This is the best place to pitch for a pitcher. You have the crowd behind you. Everyone here is so supportive, it is just a great environment to come and play. I�ve enjoyed it here the past four years. I couldn�t have ask for anything more. I appreciate everything that has happened to me. The fans, the coaches and the players have just been unreal.�

Matt Hopper
On his first-inning RBI holding up
�We just came out and just executed in the first inning, driving the ball over and getting the runner in. That was the biggest part of the game. We rode it for a while, and then we had chances to score, and we didn�t capitalize on it. In good ball games like that with a great pitcher on the mound, you take what you can get.�

Richmond coach Ron Atkins
Opening comments
�Wow, what a ballgame. You saw a good college baseball game. I think the defense on both sides played well when they had to. Both pitchers pitched extremely well. I think you have to take your hat off to (Shane) Komine. He kept us off balance. We couldn�t get a bead on him. I thought the key to the ball game was early. We had runners on second and third with one out and we didn�t score. That really hurt us. We�ve been very efficient most of the year in producing runs in that type of situation. He (Komine) made some great pitches at key times and consequently we could never muster more than one hit against him. I can�t say enough about Tim Stauffer. Tim Stauffer battled. He made some great pitches in key situations. He pitched a great ball game also.�

On the atmosphere
�Whether you�re a baseball fan or a baseball player or a coach, you�ve got to love playing before a crowd like this whether they�re for you or against you. It just gets your adrenaline flowing. It was great. This was a great college baseball game. To me, this is what college baseball is all about, playing before a crowd and just enjoying and playing the game. It was a great baseball game. We just couldn�t get the key hits. Most of the time, winning and losing is dictated by timely hitting. We just didn�t get it today.�

Richmond first baseman Vito Chiaravalloti
On the third inning (runners on second and third with one out)
�Without a doubt. That was a huge inning for us. We had the momentum going into that inning after they scored in the first. It was really our first opportunity to get something going and we came up a little short. That�s the way it worked out for us the whole game. I felt there were a couple of times where we had guys in position. They made a couple errors to give us a lead off base runner and we couldn�t do anything with it. Hats off to Komine. He pitched a great game. He got the outs when he had to.�

On Nebraska pitcher Shane Komine
�I didn�t think he had overpowering stuff, I just thought he was the best pitcher we�ve face this year. He knew how to pitch.�

Richmond pitcher Tim Stauffer
On his performance
�Of course losing is always frustrating. I went out there and did what I had to do. Some days the balls don�t fall. I think we�ll be ready to come back tomorrow. I gave it all I had out there, and I�m not going to hang my head.�

On his two errors
�I was just trying to be aggressive. The first play, it was kind of the only play I had. I had to bare hand it and throw it on the run. That�s a tough play. I would have liked to have made that one. The second one I just tried to hurry it a little before I had it in my glove. I should have probably put it in my glove. He wasn�t as fast a runner as the first guy, but those kind of things happen.�

On the strategy with a runner on third
�When they�ve got runners in scoring position, I usually try to bear down a little more. The infield is in, so I tried to get a ground ball. Once in a while they�re going to get a ball up in the air. The wind was blowing out today. If the ball gets in the air it�s going to carry a little bit. Those sacrifice flies ended up being the game-winning runs.�

On the stadium
�This is definitely fun for me. It�s one of the most exciting games I�ve ever been a part of with the atmosphere and everything. There is a really good fan base here. They�re just really good fans. It�s really exciting just being here. It�s a big game and I�m going to remember it.�

Richmond Shortstop Matt Craig
On rebounding from the loss
�What we have to learn from today and realize is that in this wind and going against good pitching when you have people on you have to get them in. Nebraska did a great job of that when they had runners on third base, of putting the ball in the outfield and getting two sacrifice flies. We didn�t do that. We�ve got to realize that that�s the way this park is going to play. We�ve got to learn from today and come out tomorrow and realize that we�ve got to play a little small ball.�

Source: University of Nebraska Athletic Dept.