Huskers Force Second Title Game with SMS
Lincoln, Neb. - Senior left-hander Jamie Rodrigue picked up his first win of the season by tossing a season-long 7.1 innings to pitch the Huskers into a NCAA Lincoln Regional Championship game rematch with Southwest Missouri State at Hawks Field on Sunday afternoon.

With the victory, Nebraska improved to 47-17, while SMS slipped to 37-24.  The second title game between NU and SMS is scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. central time today.

Rodrigue, who missed much of the season with injuries, pitched his best outing of the season in a clutch situation for the Huskers, allowing five earned runs while scattering 10 hits.  Nine of the 10 SMS hits were singles, and Rodrigue issued just one walk while striking out four Bears to pick up his first win since May 18, 2002, and improve to 1-1 on the season.

The Husker offense produced all the runs Rodrigue would need with a six-run eruption in the bottom of the second inning.  Daniel Bruce, who enjoyed a 2-for-4 day at the plate including his third home run of the regional, led off the second with a double.  Bruce moved to third when Joe Gullion’s sacrifice bunt attempt was fielded by SMS starting pitcher Jeff Gray, who fired to third base late to put runners at the corners with nobody out.

John Grose followed with an RBI single, before Jake Mullinax’s sacrifice bunt moved runners to second and third with one out.  Jeff Leise then executed a squeeze bunt with Gullion just beating the throw home to give NU a 2-0 lead.  Joe Simokaitis and Matt Hopper followed with one-out, RBI singles, before Curtis Ledbetter rounded out NU’s second with a two-out, RBI single to give the Huskers a 6-0 lead.

SMS rallied for three runs on four singles in the third inning off Rodrigue, but Bruce sparked another NU rally with a solo homer to lead off the NU fifth inning.  It was Bruce’s sixth homer of the season and third of the tournament.  Simokaitis wrapped up the Husker scoring a two-run single to drive in Grose and Mullinax for a 9-3 NU lead.

Simokaitis finished game one with a 3-for-5 effort with three RBIs at the plate, while Bruce, Hopper and Ledbetter and Alex Gordon all added two hits in a 13-hit NU attack.

Tim Schoeninger relieved Rodrigue with one out in the eighth and pitched a perfect 1.2 innings to pick up sixth save of the season.  Gray took the loss for SMS to fall to 5-3 on the year. 

Game Notes
*NU senior left-hander Jamie Rodrigue pitched a season-long 7.1 innings to pick up his first win since May 18, 2002, when he defeated Louisiana Tech.  Rodrigue improved to 1.1 on the season.  His strikeout of Dant’e Brinkley in the fifth inning was the 200^th strikeout of his career. He is the 6^th Husker to strike out 200 hitters in a career.

*With a 2-for-4 effort against SMS, Matt Hopper improved to 8-for-15 in the NCAA Lincoln Regional with 4 HR, 4 walks, 10 runs scored and 7 RBIs.

*Jake Mullinax went 1-for-2 to improve to 8-for-10 with 5 RBIs in three NCAA Lincoln Regional games.

*Curtis Ledbetter went 2-for-4 to improve to 8-for-16 with 1 HR, 8 RBIs and 5 runs scored.

*Daniel Bruce hit his third home run of the NCAA Lincoln Regional with his fifth-inning blast against SMS.  Bruce has hit half of his six homers this season during four postseason games.