Curtis Ledbetter started Nebraska�s home run barrage with a third-inning grand slam, and Matt Hopper added a pair of solo home runs in the seventh and eighth innings for his second two-homer game against Eastern Michigan in the tournament.

With the win, the Huskers improved to 46-17 on the season and advanced to the championship game of the regional tournament for the fourth consecutive season. Nebraska�s win sets up a rematch with Southwest Missouri State on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. The Huskers must win that game to force a second championship game with the Bears 50 minutes following the first game.

Eastern Michigan, the Mid-American Conference Tournament champion, ends its season with a 33-28 overall mark and a 1-2 record in the 2003 NCAA Lincoln Regional.

Along with homers from Ledbetter and Hopper, Alex Gordon added a solo homer and Daniel Bruce contributed a two-run shot in the seventh inning. Gordon�s home run went back-to-back with Hopper�s first homer in the seventh, before a walk to Ledbetter set up Bruce�s second home run of the regional.

Nebraska�s power surge was more than enough to make a winner of Zach Kroenke, who pitched the first complete game by a Husker freshman since Jamie Rodrigue tossed a complete game against UW-Milwaukee in 2000. Kroenke allowed just two runs, while scattering eight hits and matching a career high with six strikeouts.

Ledbetter, whose 13th home run of the year provided all the offense Kroenke would need in the third inning, pounded his Big 12 record third grand slam of the season on a 1-0 pitch to give NU a 4-0 lead. Joe Simokaitis started the Husker rally by reaching on a fielding error by EMU starter Dale Hayes. Hopper then reached on a fielding error by the shortstop, and Gordon was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Ledbetter. The Lawrence, Kan., native improved to 6-for-7 with three homers and 21 RBIs this season with the bases loaded.

Eastern Michigan answered with two runs off Kroenke in third to trim the NU lead to 4-2, before the Huskers added three runs in the fourth inning to take a 7-2 lead. That score held until the top of the seventh when Nebraska struck for three homers and four runs, followed by a five-run eighth inning and two more runs in the ninth. The 18 runs scored by the Huskers were a season high, as NU produced 34 runs on 35 hits in two games against the Eagles during the regional.

Hayes took the loss for EMU, lasting just 3.1 innings while allowing seven runs on five hits. Hayes and five other Eagle pitchers combined to throw 229 pitches on the night, walking 10 Huskers and hitting two others. Kroenke needed 137 pitches to close the door on the Eagles, walking just EMU batter on the night.

GAME NOTES

• Nebraska�s 18 runs were a season high, surpassing the 16 runs scored against Eastern Michigan on Friday and Western Illinois on April 1.

• Curtis Ledbetter�s third-inning homer was his third grand slam of the season, tying the Big 12 single-season record for grand slams. Ledbetter is 6-for-7 with 21 RBIs with the bases loaded this season.

• Nebraska�s home runs by Matt Hopper and Alex Gordon to lead off the seventh inning were the Huskers� first back-back-to-back homers since Brandon Fusilier and John Grose connected on back-to-back homers on March 11 against Nebraska-Kearney.

• Matt Hopper, Alex Gordon and Daniel Bruce all homered in the seventh inning to give Nebraska its first three-homer inning of the season. The trio homered in consecutive at-bats, but Curtis Ledbetter drew a walk in his plate appearance between Gordon�s and Bruce�s home runs.

• Freshman left-hander Zach Kroenke pitched the first complete game of his career, allowing two runs on six hits to improve to 6-2 on the season. It was the first complete game by a Husker freshman since Jamie Rodrigue threw a complete game against UW-Milwaukee in 2000.

• Matt Hopper�s two home run performance marked his eighth career multi-homer game, fifth of the season and second of the 2003 NCAA Lincoln Regional. Hopper pushed his Big 12-leading home run total to 22 on the season and 64 in his career. His 22 homers this season are the fourth-highest single-season total in school history.

• Matt Hopper is 6-for-11 with 4 HR, 4 walks, 9 runs scored and 5 RBIs in three Lincoln Regional games.

• Curtis Ledbetter is 6-for-12 with 1 HR, 7 RBIs and 5 runs scored in three Lincoln Regional games.

• Jake Mullinax went 4-for-6 with 3 RBIs to match his career high in hits and establish a career high in RBIs. Mullinax is 7-for-9 with 5 RBIs in two NCAA Lincoln Regional games.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Nebraska Coach Mike Anderson
Opening statement
�I�m proud of our kids and the way they came out and played tonight. To be honest with you, the first couple innings went the way I thought it was going to go. I thought we would struggle a little bit and at some point get ourselves going, and we did. Obviously, it was a big blow by Curtis (Ledbetter) to get things started and a lot of good things happened for us offensively. We realized Eastern Michigan was probably out of pitching.�

�Probably first and foremost out of everything, Zach Kroenke threw a large number of pitches. We approached it to get a big lead so we didn�t have to go to the bullpen. It was extremely important to us not to go to the bullpen, so it was a great, great job out of Zach to do that job for us.�

Designated Hitter Curtis Ledbetter
On third-inning grand slam
�It is a situation every hitter dreams of being in every day. What more can you ask for to help the team than to come up with the bases loaded and get a hit. Some guys may look at it as pressure, but that is all you are looking for is runners on base and driving them in. That probably got us going a little bit and everyone else just started rolling.�

On task of winning two games Sunday
�We can do it. If we come out and swing the bats like we have a couple games this weekend we�re going to score some runs and our pitching has always been there.�

Eastern Michigan Coach Roger Coryell
�First of all, I would like to thank the city of Lincoln and the host school-Nebraska-for being such cordial hosts. They�ve been very gracious. If we didn�t have to play Nebraska every day we might have been in good shape. We just ran out of pitching tonight.�

�I give a lot of credit to Nebraska. They came out with a vengeance after the loss to Southwest Missouri and showed everyone here that they are a quality team. Coach Anderson had them ready to play tonight.�

Source: University of Nebraska Athletic Dept.