Big eighth inning propels NU to Omaha
 
Lincoln -- Senior Justin Seely capped a five-run eighth-inning rally with a one-out grand slam to power the Nebraska baseball team to its second consecutive trip to the College World Series with an 11-6 victory over the Richmond Spiders on Sunday afternoon.

Seely�s second career grand slam sent the school-record 8,569 fans into a frenzy at the NCAA Super Regional at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park and sent the Huskers packing for Omaha.

Seely�s slam capped a career-high tying four-hit performance for the outfielder from Nacogdoches, Texas, and made a winner of Shane Komine, who picked up his second win of the Super Regional.

Komine, who threw a complete-game four-hit shutout in a 2-0 win over the Spiders on Friday, scattered three hits and allowed two runs in three innings of relief on Sunday to improve to 10-0 on the season. The senior from Honolulu, Hawaii, closed his home career at Nebraska with a perfect 21-0 record, improving to 41-8 all time.

Komine and Seely helped the Huskers improve to 47-19 on the year, while closing out Richmond�s season with a 53-13 record.

The Spiders jumped to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on Matt Craig�s two-run homer off Nebraska starter Jamie Rodrigue, who lasted just 1.2 innings before giving way to reliever Steve Hale.

The Huskers answered with two runs in the top of the third inning on back-to-back sacrifice flies by Jed Morris and Jeff Blevins, scoring Jeff Leise and Daniel Bruce, respectively, to tie the score at two.

Nebraska continued to rally in the top of the fourth, scoring three runs to take a 5-2 lead and chase Richmond starter Mike McGirr. Senior second baseman Will Bolt started the rally with a one-out double, followed by a walk to Brandon Eymann and a single by Joe Simokaitis to load the bases. Leise followed with a single off reliever Tim Rice to drive in Bolt and Eymann, before Bruce added a sacrifice fly to score Simokaitis.

Richmond touched Hale for a run in the bottom of the fourth to close within 5-3, before Hale shut down the Spiders in both the fifth and sixth innings. Richmond reliever Matt McLoughlin also set the Huskers down quietly in the sixth and seventh innings.

While the Huskers went scoreless for three straight innings, Richmond responded with two runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the score at five. Hale started the seventh by giving up a leadoff single to Bobby LeNoir. Komine entered to retire LeNoir on a fielder�s choice groundout by A.J. Board, but gave up a two-run homer on his first pitch to Bryan Pritz.

Komine escaped the seventh without further damage, retiring David Reaver on a long flyout to left field, before striking out Craig looking to end the inning.

With the score tied at five, the Husker bats awakened to score five runs off reliever Andy Givens. Simokaitis started things off with a walk, followed by Leise�s second single of the day to put runners at the corners. Bruce followed with a bunt single to load the bases. After Morris popped out to short, Blevins drove in a run with a walk to give the Huskers a 6-5 lead. Seely followed with his second career grand slam and seventh homer of the season to provide Nebraska with a commanding 10-5 lead.

The Spiders cut the lead to 10-6 by scoring a run off Komine in the bottom of the eighth, but Nebraska added an insurance run after a leadoff triple by Simokaitis, who scored on Morris� second saricfice fly of the game.

Komine retired the Spiders in order in the ninth to send the Huskers into a jubilant celebration that included a dogpile near the mound, a victory lap around the stadium and a Blevins cartwheel to a backflip in the infield.

Givens (3-3) took the loss for the Spiders, surrendering six runs on four hits with three walks in just one inning of work. But Givens wasn�t the only Spider hurler to struggle with his control on Sunday. After starters Tim Stauffer and Thomas Martin combined to walk just two Huskers in the first two games for the Spiders, Richmond pitchers issued 11 walks to Nebraska batters on Sunday.

Nebraska�s 12 hits also surpassed the combined total of 10 hits in games one and two against the Spiders. While Seely led the Huskers with four hits, Bruce pitched in three hits, including his 16th double of the year. Leise and Simokaitis added two hits apiece for Nebraska.

Richmond knocked nine hits against the three Husker hurlers, led by Brian Ruscello�s three hits. Craig added two hits, including his 19th home run of the season.

Nebraska advances to the College World Series, where the Huskers will battle Clemson in the first round on either Friday or Saturday at a time to be announced on Monday at 2 p.m. The Tigers advanced to the CWS with their 7-4 win over Arkansas on Sunday.

Nebraska postgame notes
• The Hawks Field at Haymarket Park crowd of 8,569 on Sunday was the largest home crowd to witness a Nebraska baseball game. Sunday�s attendance surpassed the 8,481 fans who attended Saturday�s game and the 8,471 fans who witnessed the opener on Friday. Sunday�s crowd was also the largest crowd in Haymarket Park history for either a professional or college game. The three-game Super Regional series with Richmond drew 25,524 fans.
• Nebraska improved to 10-1 at home and 5-1 at Hawks Field in NCAA Tournament play. NU is 6-0 at home in NCAA Regional play and 4-1 at home in Super Regional action.
• The Spiders� two runs in the first inning marked the second straight game but just the third time in 29 games that the Huskers have allowed a first-inning run dating back to April 19.
• Nebraska has scored at least one run in 263 straight games, the second-longest active streak in college baseball.
• Two-time All-American Shane Komine improved to 10-0 on the season with his second win of the Super Regional. Komine threw a four-hit, complete-game shutout on Friday in a 2-0 Husker win in game one. Komine improved his career record to 41-8, and recorded three strikeouts to increase his career total to 503, becoming the Big 12 Conference�s all-time strikeout leader (including Big Eight and Southwest Conference play). Komine has 108 strikeouts on the season. He finished his career with a perfect 21-0 record at home.
• Justin Seely�s seventh-inning grand slam was his seventh homer and first grand slam of the season. It was his second career grand slam.
• Seely tied a career high with four hits, going 4-for-5 with a two singles, a double and homer, with four RBIs and one run scored.
• Joe Simokaitis� triple in the ninth inning was his first career triple. Simokaitis finished the Super Regional 4-for-10 with four runs scored.
• Jed Morris had his career-high 18-game hitting streak snapped, going 0-for-2 with two sacrifice flies and two RBIs. It was Morris� third sacrifice fly of the Super Regional, increasing his school record total to 12 on the season. Morris has 84 RBIs on the season, which ranks sixth in school history, trailing all-time leader Mike Duncan (1985) by just six RBIs.
• With two hits on Sunday, Jeff Leise increased his season total to 107, tying Ken Harvey (1999) for the second-best hit total in school history. Leise needs two more hits to tie Francis Collins� school record of 109 hits in 1997.
• Matt Hopper missed Sunday�s game with torn ligaments in his left thumb. He is expected to undergo surgery this week and will not play in the College World Series.
• Nebraska finished the season with a 29-5 record, tying the NU mark for most home wins in a season, equaling the win totals set in 1980 (29-1) and 1988 (29-5).

Postgame quotes

Nebraska head coach Dave Van Horn

On the game
�What a great game. They jumped on us with two quick runs. I felt like that Jamie (Rodrigue) was getting some tight pitches. He had to get that outside corner, and he wasn�t getting it and we had to make a change. Then we rallied and tied it and went on and on, and then we had a lead and here they come. Richmond is a tough team. We kept saying in the dugout, these guys will not quit, they are not going to roll over, and they didn�t.�

On Shane Komine
�We brought Shane in and he made one mistake. A guy jumped on a first pitch fastball, and he just clubbed it out of the ballpark. After that he (Shane) did a great job. We rallied in the eighth and scored five or six runs and honestly I still didn�t think it was over the way they were. Then they punch one in, in the bottom of the eighth. In the ninth inning, it just kind of went by, we made some nice plays and good pitches, and, hey, we are going back.�

�I didn�t have a pitch count. I will guarantee you that. I ask Shane after the eighth, I said, �we can get you out of there,� and he said, �I�m fine coach. I guess I didn�t expect him to say anything else.� If you would have ask me if it was going to be tied whether he was going to go 11 or 12 innings, I don�t know what I could tell you. I don�t want to tell you a lie, but I probably would have let him stay in there as long as he wanted to at this time of the year.�

On the lineup
�I told the players before the game we were going with our mighty-mite lineup. We only had one guy over six foot in the lineup. Really didn�t have any choice, Matt (Hopper) got hurt. We decided to go with a little more speed in the outfield and put Justin (Seely) at DH and put Brandon (Eymann) at first. It told them (the team) we are going to hit and run, we are going to bunt, we are going to steal and just create a little chaos if we can. We did a little bit there in the eighth. I think we crossed them up a little bit when we didn�t bunt and that opened the flood gates.�

Nebraska pitcher Shane Komine
On the emotion of today�s win
�There is a lot of emotion, we go so hard the whole year. It all comes down to these final three games. We just came out with a lot of intensity today. We never got down, and we never got too high until after thegame. After the game you see how many emotions come out of guys. We were running around the field like we did last year, thanking the fans for all of their support and never giving up on us. It hasn�t sunken in yet, but when we wake up tomorrow and realize that we are going back to the College World Series that is when it is going to sink in. We are going to have to remain focused and get prepared to play up there.�

Nebraska Outfielder Jeff Leise
On his feeling of the game
�We were down after yesterday�s game, but coach talked to us and told us we had to forget about it. Yesterday�s game was over and we are still playing today. We came out with a lot of focus,a nd we played a pretty good baseball game today and got it done. It feels awesome right now to get back to Omaha and hopefully do some damage this year.�

On his base hit that put the Huskers ahead in the fourth
�I think it was a 2-1 count and he put a fastball right there. I got enough metal on it go get it through, fortunately it scored a couple of runs and then we chipped in another one. It was a big hit, but everyone came through with big hits today when we needed them, and we got big pitches when we needed them too.�

Richmond head coach Ron Atkins
Opening Statement
�We played a tough team today. We just didn�t get it done. I thought we battled in the early part of the ballgame. The bottom line is it�s hard to give a good team like Nebraska 11 walks and expect to come back and beat a good ball club that way. We found ways to win all year and we just came up a little short today. You have to tip your hats to them. They outplayed us today. They deserve to be there (Omaha).�

On Nebraska�s chances in Omaha
�They definitely have a great club. They don�t beat themselves. You can see it in their fielding. They�re a great defensive team. (Shane) Komine can beat anybody. I think (Aaron) Marsden if he gets his ball down in the zone and gets a little better command he can give them some innings. They have a pretty good bullpen. (Steve) Hale did a good job today. He put up some zeros for them and gave them a chance to get back in the ball game. I think losing (Matt) Hopper is going to hurt them a little bit because he was a threat in their lineup. They got by us today without him, but I think they�re going to need him in the World Series.�

Richmond first baseman Vito Chiaravalloti
On the role of the crowd
�I thought they were extremely excited today. Their role in all three games was exactly the same. They were the 10th guy on the field, without a doubt, for this club. The people in Lincoln, Neb., are amazing. They�re great fans. Like I told the guys through the line, I�ll be rooting for Nebraska in Omaha. I wish it would be us, but they beat us. They beat us two games out of three. We did not beat ourselves. We have nothing to be ashamed of. This 53-13 ball club of the University of Richmond has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. We�re going to try our hardest to be back here next year.�

Richmond shortstop Matt Craig
On his two-run homerun in his first at-bat
�I couldn�t have planned it any better. All I was trying to do was hit a ball up the middle. He just left a change-up up, and I really can�t remember it right now. I just hit it and started running. I couldn�t think of a better way to start off the ball game. I thought right then that the momentum was on our side. Nebraska came back and fought back all day. They had great hits and great defense and there is not much you can do about that.�

Richmond centerfielder Bryan Pritz
On seeing Shane Komine on the mound again
�I wasn�t really surprised that he came back. We had heard word before the game that he might come in and throw an inning or two. To tell you the truth, I was kind of happy to see him. He got me out in all my at-bats the first day, and I wanted to come back and get him. He threw me a nice high fastball and that was all I was looking for. I wasn�t really thinking about anything else. I was just trying to hit where it was pitched.�

Source: University of Nebraska Athletic Dept.