HuskerConnection Player/Pitcher of the Week

Week 2 Results (2-1 / 5-1 overall): 2-27-04 vs. NWestern St: NU 8 NW 4 2-28-04 vs. Rice: RU 4 NU 2 2-29-04 vs. North Carolina: NU 10 NC 4

PLAYER	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG
3B Alex Gordon	3	11	3	5	0	1	1	3	2	0	1	.455	.538	.846
CURRENT ’04 STATS	6	26	8	12	1	1	3	11	3	2	2	.462	.548	.923
Comments: There is not much you can about Alex Gordon that hasn’t been said already. You can however be thankful that NU will have him in the lineup for at least the ’04 and ’05 seasons. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him be a top round draft pick after his junior season. That’s not saying he will sign a pro contract for certain, but his talents won’t be overlooked in the draft this time around. The word was scouts kind of bypassed him in the draft after his senior year of high school after he made it clear that he wanted to attend college at least for 3 years. He needs to fine tune his defensive skills a bit, but his offensive talents alone will carry him into professional baseball. He leads NU in such categories as RBI’s (11), Total bases (24), Triples (1), Slugging (.846), Stolen Bases (tied 2), HR’s (tied 3).Defensively this weekend in the 3 game tournament, he handled 11 out of 12 chances cleanly. What makes him so deadly at the plate is his incredible plate coverage and discipline. He will make pitchers come into his zone and he can hit the ball hard to any part of the ballpark. He has shown in the two tournaments so far he has tremendous power to all fields by hitting majestic home runs to left center field and also right center field. That is what makes a .300 hitter a .400 hitter. From personal experience, when I finally learned when I got to college that you don’t have to pull every pitch and to use all fields where the ball is pitched, my batting average jumped close to .100 points. You can tell Coach Anderson really works on that with all his hitters. Guys like Simokaitis, Mullinax, Shockey, Boyer, etc. all show such great bat control enabling them to ‘spray’ the ball to all fields. Notes: It was good to see Curtis Ledbetter have a good day at the plate on Sunday vs. North Carolina. This lineup isn’t complete without his power and ability to drive in runs from the cleanup spot. Curtis is definitely too good of a hitter to be mired in a semi slump for long. He has hit a lot of balls very hard this season, either right at someone or foul. That’s the way baseball goes and Curtis seems like the kind of player that won’t let it effect him. He and the coaching staff know he is due to come up big in a series and I see very big things in store for Ledbetter this weekend in Minneapolis. The Huskers have a history of feasting on the pitching at the Dairy Queen Classic, hopefully they continue that this coming weekend. Florida State should provide a very tough test on Friday afternoon.

PITCHER	G	IP	W	L	SV	H	HR	ER	BB	SO	ERA	OBA
RHP Q. Robertson	1	8	0	1	0	7	1	2	2	1	2.50	.250
CURRENT ’04 STATS	2	13	1	1	0	15	3	9	3	3	6.23	.294
Comments: The old saying ‘tough luck starter’ would apply for Quinton Roberston in his Saturday start against the Rice University Owls. Roberston isn’t an overpowering pitcher and won’t dazzle with stats, but he is about as competitive a pitcher as you will encounter when he steps onto the mound. Tougher opponents seem to bring out the best in him as well. That is the sign of a guy that isn’t afraid to take the ball in pressure situations and give his team a chance to win a ballgame. Robertson gave NU 8 strong innings(2 earned runs) against the 2nd ranked team in the country. That should be plenty good enough to win almost every time out. Two unearned runs and a dominating performance from his counterpart from Rice (Wayne Townsend) were the biggest obstacles Robertson faced on Saturday. Robertson said he lost a little focus in his first start of the season after the Husker offense gave him a big lead to work with. That shouldn’t be a problem when Big 12 play gets here. He has a wealth of experience from his days in JUCO and last season as NU’s #2 starter. I look for Robertson to continue to bring his best stuff to the mound as one of NU’s top 3 starting pitchers on the weekends. Notes: It was also great to see NU get a lot of guys work out of the bullpen this weekend. Timm, Shirek, Shoeninger, Furnish, Becker, Jensen, and Sillman all threw well in their outings this weekend. The bullpen combined to throw 6.2 innings without yielding a run. The bullpen in the past was sometimes thought of as weakest area, but with the quality arms and good mix of veterans and newcomers, it could be an area of strength for the 2004 Husker squad. This Week’s Games: Dairy Queen Classic (Minneapolis, MN) FRI vs. Florida State-12:15pm SAT vs. Minnesota-6:35pm SUN vs. West Virginia-11am