Komine wins regional opener for Nebraska
Advertiser News Services
Nebraska right-hander Shane Komine struck out nine in eight innings as the Cornhuskers opened the NCAA Baseball Regional Tournament with a 16-6 victory over Northern Iowa at Buck Beltzer Stadium in Lincoln, Neb., yesterday.
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A school-record crowd of 4,604 watched Nebraska (46-14) advance to the regional semifinals. The Cornhuskers today play Rutgers (41-15), which defeated Brigham Young 4-3 yesterday.
Shane Komine earned his 30th collegiate victory with a 16-6 win over Northern Iowa.
Nebraska's offense provided support with 10 runs in the first three innings.
The Kalani High graduate improved to 13-1 this season, and 30-7 in his three-year Nebraska career. Komine took a perfect game into the fourth before allowing two unearned runs on one hit. He spaced six hits and two earned runs and walked one.
Despite his strong outing, Komine was bothered by back problems. "I just wanted to go out and throw strikes. The back was a little tight, but I did exercises to take the pressure off. I wanted to go out and throw well," Komine said.
In other highlights:
• No. 1 losers: Three regional top seeds lost yesterday. Georgia lost to Georgia Southern 4-3 in the Athens, Ga., regional; Tennessee Tech upset Wake Forest 9-7 in the Knoxville, Tenn., regional and Seton Hall defeated South Alabama 7-2 in the Clemson, S.C., regional.
• WAC teams: Jesse Roman drove in six runs with a homer, a triple and a single to lead WAC champion Rice (44-17) to an 11-4 victory over Texas-Arlington at the Houston regional.
Pepperdine defeated Fresno State of the WAC, 4-0, in the Los Angeles regional.
• Coach watch: Chris Duffy and Casey Myers homered during a nine-run seventh inning to lead Arizona State past Texas Tech 13-3, in the Fullerton, Calif., regional.
Arizona State coach Pat Murphy has been offered the head coaching job at the University of Hawai'i.
