FOX News

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Osborne accurate in analysis of Mike Anderson


Holdrege's Erica Sturgis at the Soccer State Tournament. Picture courtesy of the Lincoln Journal-Star.

First of all, congratulations to my daughter Jessica and Scott Wheeler on their first anniversary. Last month my oldest daughter, Sarah and Robert Baltensperger celebrated their first anniversary!

Nebraska beat Baylor on Saturday 5-0 behind Sean Yost's complete game shutout. Yost, a freshman, becomes the first Husker freshman to pitch a complete game shutout in nine years. The future is brighter. The win puts NU at 24-24-1 in 2009. Not the year they wanted.

Mike Anderson is a great role model and a great coach. When the season didn't meet up to past performances, the rumblings started. Those that understand the game have been disappointed but realize that baseball is a tough sport to coach.

Osborne, on Friday, explained some of the elements that have made it tough for NU. He said "NU lost to professional baseball 14 of 18 potential returnees and recruits who were selected in the 2007 and 2008 drafts." The Omaha World-Herald reported that NU lost seven pitchers to the draft the past two years that were drafted within the first ten rounds. They also mentioned that this year's rotation could have been Aaron Pribanic, Dan Jennings, and Zach Herr, all underclassmen that went in last year's draft.

So NU took what they had this year. In Big 12 play the ERA was 7.80 coming into this weekend. But Nesseth on Friday and Yost on Saturday have shown what good coaching and experience has done for their development.

Today, Senior Erik Bird gets his first Big 12 start. It would be great for him to close out the final game with another great performance. He has performed well during the weekday games. With a similar performance today maybe the pro scouts will take a look at this talented player.

The Holdrege girls are in the finals of the State Class B soccer tournament on Tuesday. Jordan Pfeifer scored on Friday to become the first girl in soccer state tournament history to score from western Nebraska. Sophomore Kirsten Larson scored the winning goal. Holdrege went on to win 2-1 in overtime. They beat Lincoln Pius on Saturday 1-0. Jaci Gillispie scored Holdrege's winning goal. Holdrege plays Omaha Scutt on Tuesday. Scutt haven't allowed a goal in like the last ten games. Nebraska recruit excels for Scutt. Scutt is played in the finals the past four of five years. Good luck Dusters!!

Nebraska received a commitment from Keeston Terry, a receiver from the Kansas City area. Great name for Husker football. At 6'2" and 180 lbs., Terry is listed as a four star receiver by the recruiting services. It sounds like Terry meets the criteria of who NU is going after these days; great athlete, but just as important a great student and person. NU recruits have to generally meet all three of these attributes. Also it is important that recruits come from a winning program. His coach, Terry Donahue, says his best is yet to come. Donahue was raised in Nebraska and was a former KU quarterback.

Ty Kildow is a walk on for NU football this fall. Saturday he propelled Millard South to the Class A finals in baseball. Could he be a two sport athlete also?

If you haven't seen the show Southland on Thursday nights, see it. It has become the best show on TV from this writer's view.

2 comments:

Kim said...

I saw an article about the Holdrege girls on the front page of the Lincoln Journal Star's sports page. That almost never happens!

Johnny Boehler said...

Awesome!! The Holdrege Duster soccer team deserves it!!