Huskers go 3 -1 over the weekend in CA.

The Nebraska softball team traveled to Fullerton, California, over the weekend to compete in the Easton Tournament. The Big Red went 3-1, and improved their record to 12-12. Boise State, Charleston Southern, DePaul and Cal State Fullerton rounded out the tourney list.

Huskers played two games on Friday against Boise State University and Charleston Southern University. Nebraska beat Boise State 11-3 in six innings, and were also victorious over Charleston Southern 8-3.

Friday’s success carried over into Saturday. NU earned a run-rule 13-2 win against DePaul University in game one. With that victory, Nebraska pulled above .500 for the first time since the beginning weekend of the spring season. The Huskers ended the tournament however with a loss to Cal State Fullerton 3-0.

It wasn’t all work over the weekend for the Huskers. Before returning home from the west coast, the Huskers took out some time for fun in the sun.

With this last road trip before conference play begins, Nebraska needed to tune up some parts of their game. Both pitching and offensive production have been inconsistent during the non-conference tournament schedule.

NU Coach Rhonda Revelle believes the team took a big step forward during last weekend’s action. She was more than pleased by the pitching performances during the tournament. Husker juniors Cassie McClure and Emily Lockman, who will likely be the starters the rest of the season, each made two starts and pitched well.

In the wins against Boise State and DePaul, Cassie McClure allowed 5 total runs. Emily Lockman, who has been struggling from the circle this season, had perhaps her best performance of the year. She allowed just 5 runs over the entire weekend in a win against Charleston Southern and loss against Cal State Fullerton.

Offensively, the Huskers exploded. Big Red bats produced 35 hits over the four game outing.  Kiki Stokes, MJ Knighten, Cassie McClure and Dawna Tyson got the bats going as the Huskers saw hits go “out of the park.” While playing “small ball” is essential when bats are struggling, blasting home-runs over the wall fuels an offense.

Huskers return home to begin conference play on Friday, March 20 when they host the Michigan State Spartans for a weekend series. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 5:30pm (CDT). Stay tuned for further updates and as always, GO BIG RED!!