NU starters Brad Furnish (Lucas, Texas) and Justin Pekarek (Staplehust, Neb.) each tossed five scoreless innings, as the Huskers, who have won 26 straight home openers, improved to 10-4 on the season.

Furnish, making his first collegiate start, scattered two hits to improve to 1-0 on the season in the opener, while Pekarek (2-0) struck out four and allowed three hits in the nightcap. Nick Simmons� ninth-inning three-run homer off reliever Jon Klausing in the opener was the only offensive highlight for Western Illinois (9-13), which was shutout for the first time all season in game two.

"I feel good about the fact that we won a couple of games, but we still have a ways to go and ways to improve," Anderson said. "I really liked the pitching performances today. Our pitchers did an okay job in that first game and did a great job in the second. We�re getting some good performances on the mound and we just need to back that up with some offense - small things that we can execute."

In the opener, the Huskers took advantage of a pair of second-inning errors by Western Illinois shortstop Ryan Schmidgall to score four runs. An error and walk put runners on first and second with no out before John Grose�s (Henderson, Nev.) grounder was misplayed, allowing the first run to score. Three batters later, Jesse Boyer delivered a two-out, two-run single off Leatherneck starter Patrick Kohorst before Colin Shockey�s (LaVista, Neb.) RBI single put the Huskers ahead 4-0.

Kohorst (1-3) pitched well in defeat, allowing six hits and no earned runs in six innings of work.

The Huskers tacked on its final run in the eighth on a run-scoring single by Chad Steele (Omaha, Neb.), who went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Steele, Shockey and Jake Mullinax (Hesperia, Calif.) had two hits apiece in the win. Klausing came in relief in the sixth and didn�t allow a hit until Simmons� blast with two outs in the ninth.

In the nightcap, Nebraska spotted Pekarek all the runs he would need early, on, scoring once in the first on a two-out RBI double by Alex Gordon (Lincoln, Neb.) and two more in the third, capitalizing on an error on a double steal and a run-scoring single by freshman Braden Keith (Elbert, Colo.).

Pekarek and four relievers combined on a seven-hitter, striking out 10 and allowing only three runners in scoring position.

In all, the Huskers pounded out 11 hits, including two each by Gordon and Beau Sullivan (Woodward, Okla.), who doubled, tripled and scored twice. Freshman Johnny Bowden (Springfield, Ore.) also added a sixth-inning RBI double, as nine different players had at least one hit in the victory.

The Huskers begin a three-game series this weekend against Boston College. First pitch against the Eagles is set for Friday, March 19, at 2:05 p.m. All three games will be video streamed live on HuskersNside, while both weekend games will be carried on the Pinnacle Sports Network.

Source: University of Nebraska Athletic Dept.