Eight Nebraska players were honored by the Big Ten with postseason awards Tuesday, including freshman of the year Chad Luensmann.
Luensmann, a reliever from Altoona, Pennsylvania, is the first Husker to earn the award in the Big Ten. He tied for the league lead with 13 saves (an NU freshman record), recorded a 1.26 ERA and held opponents to a .171 batting average. He was a unanimous choice to the conference's all-freshman team and was also named to the All-Big Ten second team.
Sophomore Scott Schreiber, who led the conference with 16 home runs and finished second with 55 RBIs, was named to the All-Big Ten first team. Schreiber, from Menasha, Wisconsin, played first base and right field for much of the year. He batted .320.
Junior center fielder Ryan Boldt and senior shortstop Steven Reveles were second-team honorees, along with Luensmann. Sophomore pitcher and right fielder Jake Meyers and junior Ben Miller were named to the third team.
Freshman Matt Waldron was a unanimous selection to the Big Ten's all-freshman team. Senior catcher Taylor Fish was nominated for a sportsmanship award.
The league named Minnesota's Matt Fiedler the player of the year, Illinois' Cody Sedlock the pitcher of the year and Minnesota's John Anderson the coach of the year.
Beware of box-office lines
Fans planning to purchase single-day tickets at the ballpark box office Wednesday may want to plan for long wait times the closer it gets to Nebraska's 1 p.m. Big Ten tournament opener.
More than 4,000 fans bought walk-up tickets the day of NU's first game in this event two years ago. TD Ameritrade Park officials are preparing for a similar showing.
Nearly 8,000 (all-session and single-day) tickets have been sold in advance of Wednesday's game. A crowd of more than 10,000 is anticipated for the Nebraska-Michigan State matchup.
The TD Ameritrade Park box office is scheduled to open at 8 a.m., one hour before the 9 a.m. Indiana-Maryland game. Fans are allowed one re-entry pass per game.
Schreiber still 'day-to-day'
Nebraska will likely be without its top slugger for the first day of the Big Ten tournament and possibly the entire event.
Schreiber missed the final two regular season games because of what was initially thought to be a groin injury but has been since diagnosed as a lower abdominal strain. He didn't practice Tuesday. His timetable for recovery is unknown.
The timing of the injury is especially unfortunate for Schreiber, who had homered five times in his last three games.
"It's day-to-day," coach Darin Erstad said. "I just don't have any updates right now."
Nebraska has gone 6-2 without Schreiber, its home run and RBI leader.
Plans in place for rain delays
The week's weather forecast includes the probability of rain on nearly every day, and Erstad notes that it could impact how coaches handle their pitching rotations.
In-game delays. Postponements. Suspended games.
Anything is possible. So the teams, particularly their pitchers, will just have to react in the moment.
"We're going to have to deal with it as it comes," Erstad said. "It can get to be challenging as far as managing the pitching, but fortunately we have some depth and guys that can go multiple innings. Everybody's in the same boat, so we'll see."
If there are rain delays, the coaches have agreed not to start any games later than 10 p.m. It will take about one hour between games for teams to warm up and for the grounds crew to prepare the field. At this point, only two games are scheduled for Friday, so there could be room to fit in a couple of extra games.
Sunday's title game is set for 1 p.m. The NCAA selection show is Monday.