LINCOLN The Nebraska baseball team concludes a seven-game homestand this week as the Cornhuskers play host to Northern Colorado in a two-game series.
Tuesday's first pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. with an afternoon matinee on Wednesday at 1:35 p.m. Tuesday's game is the first under the lights this season at Hawks Field.
General admission tickets for both games are available by calling 800-8-BIGRED or at Hawks Field 90 minutes prior to each game.
The Huskers continued to move up in the national polls on Monday, jumping to 15th in Collegiate Baseball and 19th in Baseball America. The Huskers were 22nd in both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball last week, marking its first appearance in the national rankings in 2008.
Nebraska outfielder Nick Sullivan was honored by the Big 12 on Monday, as he was named the league's player of the week. Sullivan hit .444 (8-for-18) with a homer and nine RBIs in helping the Huskers go 3-1-1 on the week.
Sullivan had four multi-RBI games and three multi-hit games on the week, helping the Huskers split a series with Arkansas and go 2-0-1 in a Big 12 series with Oklahoma. He is the third Husker in as many weeks to be honored by the Big 12, joining pitcher Johnny Dorn (March 10) and first baseman Craig Corriston (March 17).
Against Northern Colorado, Nebraska is scheduled to start left-hander Dan Jennings (2-0, 2.70 ERA) on Tuesday. Right-hander Erik Bird (0-1, 1.64 ERA) is slated to start Wednesday.
Under coach Kevin Smallcomb (129-160 in six seasons), Northern Colorado comes to Lincoln with a 7-15 record. The Bears, who have played their first 24 games on the road, have played well at times, splitting a four-game series with Texas A&M earlier in the season.
Last weekend, UNC went 2-2 at Arizona State's tournament, becoming the first team to knock off the top-ranked Sun Devils in 20 games this year with a 6-3 win.
Senior Jon Klausing (1-2 5.53 ERA) is slated to start on Tuesday against the Huskers. Klausing, who pitched at NU from 2004-07 and received his degree at UNL in December, picked up a win against Texas A&M and limited the Huskers to three hits in the first meeting on March 9.
Chad Murray leads UNC's offense with a .324 average, while Kevin Sandberg is hitting .288 with team-bests in homers (four) and RBIs (17).
Series notes
* The Huskers have won 26 of the 29 meetings against Northern Colorado, including 12 of 13 meetings since the Bears have moved to the Division I level. The Huskers swept a four-game series between the two teams earlier this month.
* The Huskers' 5-0-1 start in Big 12 play is their best since the league was formed in 1997. The previous start was 5-1 on four occasions, most recently in 2005.
* The start times for the first two games of this weekend's Nebraska-Texas series have been changed. Because of the Texas-Stanford men's basketball tournament game, Friday's first pitch is now set for 3:05 p.m. On Saturday, the game was moved to 6:05 p.m. and will be televised on FSN.
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