Nebraska Baseball: Top Five Players Of The 2014 Season

4) Christian DeLeon, Senior Starting Pitcher, Richmond, TX

An innings-eater, ferocious competitor and for the majority of the 2014 season the ace of the Nebraska baseball pitching staff, DeLeon gets the number four spot.

Let me take you back to the first two weeks of April. Nebraska would be facing their second Big Ten opponent of the season with the Ohio State Buckeyes coming to Lincoln. DeLeon would proceed to take the mound that Friday night and throw a complete game allowing eight hits and two runs over 119 pitches.

In the end, he kept the Buckeyes at bay long enough for the Big Red to complete the first of three miraculous rallies against Ohio State on the last at-bat.

DeLeon’s first complete game wasn’t his last. No, the ace from Texas did it again only eight short days later against Minnesota. 115 pitches was what it took for DeLeon to scatter four hits and earn his fourth win of the season.

He became the first pitcher to go back-to-back with complete games since Erik Bird did it during the 2009 season.

When you have a guy who can take the ball and grind like DeLeon, it makes things easy for a coaching staff. Unfortunately for him and the rest of the team, he’s has been battling some arm soreness and fatigue that has kept him out of the rotation and on the bench for three weeks.

The coaching staff hopes to have him available for the NCAA regional. Nebraska baseball will need DeLeon’s arm to add depth to a pitching staff that was clearly hurting for another starting arm during the championship game of the Big Ten Tournament.

If DeLeon can return for the regional, he’ll bring a 5-2 record and 2.46 ERA with him to go along with his second team All-Big Ten honors.