Posted on: Sunday, March 25, 2001

Komine is king of K's for Nebraska baseball

Advertiser Staff

Pitching in weather so cold he couldn't feel the ball in his hand, Shane Komine of Honolulu yesterday became the career strikeout king for the University of Nebraska.

Komine struck out only five ­ less than half of his 11.5 strikeouts per game average last year ­ in a 7-inning, mercy-rule shortened, 14-4 victory over Missouri. He ran his career total to 293 strikeouts in 2› seasons, erasing the nine-year-old school record of 289 set in four seasons by Mike Zajeski.

"I never expected to come here and have that record," said Komine, a junior right-hander out of Kalani High (1998).

Especially on a day like yesterday. Temperatures in Lincoln were 26 to 29 degrees during the game, with a 15-20 mph wind from the northeast that made the wind-chill 4 degrees above zero, according to Katrine Hansen, weather anchor at television station KLKN in Lincoln.

"I couldn't break off my curve ball," Komine said. "I had no feeling in my hand. I had to use whatever (pitch) worked at the time because my hand was numb and my arm was tightening up. I used a change-up a lot. It was the coldest I've ever pitched in."

The game had been postponed from Friday night because it was even colder then.

Between innings, Komine said, he went downstairs to the clubhouse, where he rode a stationary bike and applied heat packs to his arm.

"Having run support and defense like we had today makes it easy," said Komine, who is 6-1 on the season.