Don’t look now, but Nebraska has a top-10 team in collegiate baseball. The Huskers, who swept Texas Tech this past weekend are now ranked #6 in both the ESPN/USAToday Coaches Poll and the Collegiate Baseball Top 25.

Nebraska maintains a 1.5 game lead over Texas A&M in the Big 12 standings.

Former Husker hurler Shane Komine made his big league debut with the Oakland A’s today going a solid 6 innings with a no-decision in the A’s win over Toronto.

Komine gave up 4 hits, including a first-inning homerun, but left the game with a 2-1 lead. A’s reliever Houston Street gave up 3 in the ninth in what looked to be blown save opportunity until Oakland rallied for 3 in the bottom half for the win.

Before being called up, Komine had won his last six starts for Triple A Sacramento.

The Husker’s season came to end today with a 5-1 loss to San Francisco. A 3-run bottom of the first, at the hands of two balk calls, was all the Dons needed to knock out the #6 seed, Nebraska.

Miami defeated San Francisco 11-4 in the late game.

For Saturday:
Nebraska will face San Francisco at 1:05 pm at Hawks Field with television coverage on Net1 and in hi-def on Net-HD.

Miami will square off against Manhattan in the late game at 7:05 pm.

A tough opening to the Regional in Lincoln as Manhattan beat Nebraska 4-1 in a game where the Huskers where shut down all day.

It will be an uphill battle as Nebraska will now need to win 4 straight, starting with the loser of tonight’s Miami - San Francisco game Saturday at 1:05

A few games into the 2006 season, if you need one thing to gauge the success of this year’s squad. Look to the 11 inning win today on a single from Brandon Buckman against Alabama.

Alamaba’s starting pitcher for the day, Wade LeBlanc is likely the finest pitcher Nebraska will face all season until post-season play rolls around. With Joba Chamberlain on the bench with a sore arm, Nebraska faced the challenge with a near-capacity crowd of 6,200 in the stands on Friday afternoon.

It just may be another fine run to June.

Friday, 2:o5 pm, Nebraska makes their home debut with a weekend series against Alabama at Hawk’s Field. Saturday and Sunday games will see the first pitch at 1:05 pm.

Probable Pitchers looks like:
Friday: Tony Watson LHP for the Huskers v. Alabama’s ace, Wade LeBlanc LHP
Saturday: Johnny Dorn RHP for Nebraska v. Bernard Robert RHP
Sunday: Husker’s Charlie Shirek RHP v. Tommy Hunter RHP

On a side note, Joba Chamberlain was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week and Pro-Line Caps National Pitcher of the Week from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) for the week ending March 5.

The Husker’s bats came out in the 4th and 9th but ASU was all over the usually rock-solid NU pitching staff today as the Sun Devils prevail 8-7 in 11 innings.

Leading the charge from Arizona State was first baseman Jeff Larish who took the NU offerings to task and launched a CWS-tying 3 homeruns on the today including a crucial shot in the bottom of the 9th to send the game into extra innings.

The Huskers were down 5-3 going into the 9th but inched closer when Jesse Boyer scored on an Alex Gordon singled through the left side. Joe Simokaitis was then tossed out at third on a David Ledbetter bunt. Freshman Andy Gerch then stepped to the plate and launched a 3 run shot to left giving Nebraska a 7-5 lead.

Errors uncharacteristically plagued the Huskers today leading to a leadoff baserunner in the bottom half when Seth Dhaenens reached on an error by Jake Optiz. Dhaenens then stole second, advanced to third on a J.J. Sferra bunt and scored on a sacrifice fly by Joe Persichina. While Nebraska managed to clear the bases by doubling off Sferra on Persichina’s sacrifice, it brought Jeff Larish to plate and he promptly hit his 3rd shot of the game to deepest part of centerfield.

Both teams sent four to the plate in the 10th but neither managed to mount an offensive threat.

Nebraska stayed quiet in the top half of the 11th, with a foul out by Gordon, a single by Ledbetter, and strikeouts by Gerch and Bryce Nimmo. The Sun Devils started with leadoff single by Joey Hooft. A sacrifice bunt by Dhaenens then moved Hooft to second. A single by Sferra pushed the winning across the plate.

Nebraska is eliminated and Arizona State moves on face Florida needing two wins to advance to the championship.

To the consolation bracket go the Huskers. A disappointing loss that started out bad and just never turned around. Florida jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first and never lost control of the game. Horn settled down after the leadoff double and the following homerun. But a 4 run fifth inning sealed the victory for Floriday.

Nebraska will face Arizona State again on Tuesday at 1:05 (CT) in an elimination game. No word out of the Husker camp on the starting pitcher yet, but the HuskerZone.com staff wouldn’t be surprised to Joba Chamberlain on 3 days rest.

Nebraska wins their first CWS game. Up next, Florida on Sunday at 6:05 pm (Central).