season’s likely over.Nebraska was 39th in the RPI after Sat-

urday’s games — and only 22 eligible teamsduring the past 10 years have failed to earnan at-large regional spot with a top 40 RPI.But the Huskers lack quality wins, they’vepicked up a few too many bad losses, they’reunder .500 in league play and they’ve stum-bled to the finish line.

This was a team ranked as high as 18th inthe Top 25 with a 22-7 record to begin April.But now it’s all but assumed that NU can’tmake a regional without winning the Big Tentournament.

So that’ll be the goal.“It’s just good to be in the tournament,”

senior pitcher Kyle Kubat said. “The lastfew months haven’t been what we’d hoped.We started off hot. Unfortunately we’ve hadsome tough breaks, some close calls. Butwe’re in the tournament. Hopefully we canmake a run at this.”

They nearly did it two years ago.The Huskers won three straight elimina-

tion games to earn a spot in the title game.But they lost to Indiana. Their 29-30 recordknocked them out of regional contention(teams have to be .500 or better).

NU was a runner-up to the Hoosiers in theBig Ten tournament last season, as well.

“Us older guys know what it takes,” Kubatsaid. “We’ve been here before.”

Their competition has never been thisformidable, though.

Five other Big Ten teams ranked insidethe RPI top 50 after Saturday. And thenthere’s Maryland, ranked 60th, which hadbeen projected into the NCAA’s field of64 before dropping two of three games atNorthwestern last weekend.

The Big Ten’s been a two-bid league thelast three years. The conference has neverplaced more than three teams in regionalsduring the same season. But Illinois, Iowa,Ohio State, Michigan State, Indiana andMaryland were all included in D1baseball.com’s regional predictions last week. Sothere will be plenty of motivated ballclubs inMinneapolis.

Making the task more difficult for NU? Itsfirst-round matchup is against No. 5 Illinois,which is riding a 26-game winning streak. Ifthe Huskers don’t beat the Illini in Wednes-day’s opener, they’d have to win five straight

games to clinch the title. That’d be five winsin four days.

For now, though, the focus is on Wednes-day’s 5 p.m. game. If Nebraska can rattleoff some wins, it can rewrite the story of itsseason. The players won’t be backing awayfrom the challenge.

“If you want to win this tournament you’regoing to have to beat the best at some point,”Kubat said. “Might as well make it the firstround.”

Contact the writer:402-473-9585, jon.nyatawa@owh.com, twitter.com/JonNyatawa

DOUBLE ELIMINATION (x — if necessary)

Wednesday: No. 3 seed Michigan vs. No. 6Indiana, 9 a.m. No. 2 Iowa vs. No. 7 Ohio St.,1 p.m. No. 1 Illinois vs. No. 8 Nebraska, 5 p.m.No. 4 Maryland vs. No. 5 Michigan St., 9 p.m.

Thursday: UM-Ind winner vs. Iowa-OSU winner, 5p.m. (BTN). UM-Ind loser vs. Iowa-OSU loser, 9a.m. Ill-NU winner vs. Mary-MSU winner, 9 p.m.(BTN). Ill-NU loser vs. Mary-MSU loser, 1 p.m.

Friday: Losers bracket 3:30 and 7:30 p.m.

Saturday: TBD, 9 a.m., 1 p.m. x-5 p.m., 9 p.m.

Final Sunday: 1 p.m.

tournament.“If we’re fortunate enough to make it to

the championship game,” Rider said, “we’rehoping that we might get 5,000 or more.”

Creighton, the No. 2 seed, will play themarquee 7 p.m. game Thursday againstthird-seeded Seton Hall. The tournamentwill open with a 3:30 p.m. game betweentop-seeded St. John’s and fourth-seededGeorgetown.

This will be Georgetown’s first confer-ence tournament appearance since 1986.St. John’s is the hottest team entering thetournament having won 12 straight and 16 of17 games.

Creighton posted a series win this seasonover Seton Hall, winning the last two gamesafter the Pirates rallied for a 5-4 win inthe opener. The Bluejays have won five ofseven games against Seton Hall the past twoseasons.

“It doesn’t matter who we play but playingSeton Hall will make it fun,” said Fowler,referring to the team that Creighton hasdeveloped the most intense rivalry with inthe new league. “We know that it’s going tobe competitive.”

The Bluejays also are pumped that theirbid to grab a spot in the NCAA tournamentwill be played on their home turf.

“There’s nothing better than playing infront of your home crowd,” Creighton thirdbaseman Harrison Crawford said. “We alsoknow this field, and that plays to our advan-tage big time.”

Contact the writer:402-679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com, twitter.com/PivOWH

Big East: Jays resume rivalry with Seton Hall in tourneyContinued from Page 1

MONDAY, MAY 18, 2015 • 5COMAHA WORLD-HERALD BASEBALL

WORLD-HERALD NEWS SERVICE

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Oma-ha ended its longest losingstreak of the season Sunday,but also closed the day withanother loss.

The Storm Chasers (18-20)split a doubleheader withMemphis (15-23) at AutoZonePark, with Omaha taking theopener 2-1 and dropping thenightcap 4-1. The win in thefirst game snapped the Chas-ers’ five-game skid.

Orlando Calixte’s two-runhomer in the second inningprovided all Omaha’s offensein the opener. Chaserspitchers Yohan Pino, BuddyBaumann and Louis Colemancombined to allow one run.

Pino, who has won each ofhis two starts with the Chas-ers, has given up two earnedruns in his 26 combinedinnings between Omahaand Kansas City (0.69 ERA),including 12 innings withOmaha allowing one run.

In the second game, theRedbirds scored three inthe fourth after strandingseven runners in the firstthree innings. The Chasers’only run came on an RBI byDusty Coleman, his first withOmaha.

The Chasers cap the seriesMonday and Tuesday beforestarting an eight-game home-stand Thursday against Reno.

GAME 1OMAHA MEMPHISab r h bi ab r h bi

Merrifield 2b 4 0 1 0 Anna 2b 4 0 0 0Fuentes cf 3 0 0 0 Easley c 3 1 2 0Cuthbert dh 3 0 0 0 Piscotty cf 2 0 1 1Martinez lf 3 0 1 0 Johnson dh 3 0 1 0Pena c 3 1 1 0 Scruggs 1b 3 0 0 0Adams rf 2 0 0 0 Garcia ss 3 0 0 0Calixte 3b 3 1 1 2 Moore 3b 3 0 1 0Coleman ss 3 0 1 0 Kelly rf 3 0 1 0Fields 1b 3 0 2 0 O’Neill lf 2 0 0 0Totals 27 2 7 2 Totals 26 1 6 1Omaha .............................................020 000 0—2At Memphis.....................................001 000 0—1E: Kelly (4), Garcia (7). 2B: Easley (2), Piscotty(10). HR: Calixte (2). LOB: O 6, M 7.Omaha IP H R ER BB SOPino, W 2-0 5 4 1 1 2 3Baumann 12⁄3 2 0 0 0 1L. Coleman, S 3 1⁄3 0 0 0 0 0Memphis IP H R ER BB SOGast, L 1-3 6 7 2 2 0 4Wright 1 0 0 0 0 2WP: Gast. T: 1:45.

GAME 2OMAHA MEMPHISab r h bi ab r h bi

Merrifield rf 3 1 1 0 Anna 2b 4 0 3 0Coleman 2b 4 0 2 1 Piscotty dh 3 2 0 0Cuthbert 3b 4 0 1 0 Scruggs rf 2 1 1 1Martinez lf 3 0 0 0 Johnson 1b 2 0 1 0Kotchman 1b 2 0 1 0 Stanley c 3 0 0 1Adams cf 3 0 1 0 Kelly 3b 2 0 0 1Calixte 3b 2 0 1 0 O’Neill lf 1 0 0 0Fields dh 3 0 0 0 Ortega cf 3 0 1 0Boscan c 2 0 0 0 Williams 3 1 2 0Fuentes ph 1 0 1 0Totals 27 1 8 1 Totals 23 4 8 3Omaha (18-20)................................001 000 0—1At Memphis (15-23) .......................001 300 0—4E: Adams, Greenwood. 2B: Kotchman (10),Johnson (3). CS: Anna (2). DP: O 2, M 1. LOB:O 8, M 11.Omaha IP H R ER BB SODwyer 2 4 1 1 4 1Paterson, L 1-2 2 3 3 3 3 1Mariot 2 1 0 0 1 1Memphis IP H R ER BB SOGreenwood 32⁄3 5 1 1 1 1Waldron, W 1-3 21⁄3 2 0 0 0 1Hatley, S 3 21⁄3 1 0 0 1 0WP: Hatley. T: 2:08. A: 3,228.

PCL: OMAHAATMEMPHIS11:35 a.m. MondayAutoZone Park • 1180 AMOmaha RH Clayton Mortensen(2-3, 7.23 ERA) vs. RH ZachPetrick (1-3, 5.19)

OMAHA 2-1, MEMPHIS 1-4

Chasers splitpairwithRedbirds, endlosing streak

NU baseball:Huskers likely need to run tourney tableContinued from Page 1

Thursday: No. 4 Georgetown vs. No. 1 St.John’s, 3:30 p.m. No. 2 seed Creighton vs. No.3 Seton Hall, 7 p.m.

Friday: Georgetown- SJ loser vs. CU-SH loser,3:30 p.m. Georgetown-SJ winner vs. CU-SH

winner, 7 p.m.

Saturday: Losers bracket winner vs. Winnersbracket loser, 3:30 p.m.

Final Sunday: 1 p.m. and, if necessary, 3:30p.m., Fox Sports 2

CHR I S MACH I AN / THE WORLD -HERA LD

TD Ameritrade Park hosted the Big Ten tournament last season. The Big Ten drew 62,020 for thefive-day event, with 19,965 turning out for the championship — the largest single-game conferencetournament attendance in NCAA history.

MARK DAV I S / T HE WORLD -HERA LD

“The last fewmonths haven’t been what we’d hoped. ... But we’re in the

tournament. Hopefully we can make a run at this.”Senior pitcher Kyle Kubat (pictured)

MIAMI (AP) — Shelby Millermade the Miami Marlins look sobad that they fired their manager.

Miller’s no-hit bid ended withtwo outs in the ninth inning Sundaywhen Justin Bour singled sharplyup the middle, and the AtlantaBraves right-hander settled for atwo-hitter to beat Miami 6-0.

Two hits weren’t enough to sat-isfy Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria,who fired manager Mike Redmondshortly after the game. Miami isoff to a disappointing 16-22 start.

It’s familiar territory, though.Twelve years ago, the Marlins

were 16-22 when Loria fired hismanager and the team went on towin the World Series.

As the outs mounted Sunday, Lo-ria left his seat near home plate inthe fourth inning. After the game,he left it to President of BaseballOperations Michael Hill to explainthe managerial change.

“We haven’t played to our capa-bilities,” Hill said. “We’re hopefulthat a new voice will spark andmotivate our guys.”

Redmond’s replacement will beannounced Monday, the Marlinssaid. Bench coach Rob Leary alsowas fired.

Miller, meanwhile, had retired22 in a row after Marcell Ozuna’ssecond-inning walk when Boursingled on the first pitch, a 95-mphfastball. Dee Gordon reached onan infield single before MartinPrado popped out, completing a

three-game sweep for the Braves.“Obviously things didn’t finish

as we wanted to, but at the sametime we got a sweep,” Miller said.“In the end I had a lot of fun.”

Marlins bats were silent untilBour’s hit on the 89th pitch fromMiller. As the ball bounded into

center field, Miller briefly lookedtoward the sky — actually towardthe closed retractable roof at Mar-lins Park.

The crowd of 23,075 gave thevisiting pitcher a standing ovation.

“You never want to be the lastguy up there when someone gets a

no-hitter,” Bour said. “So I avoidedthat.”

Miller (5-1) came into the gametied for second in the majors inERA and lowered it to 1.33.

He benefited from an earlyreplay reversal to flirt with whatwould have been the first no-hitter

for the Braves in 21 years. The

reversal erased an infield single by

pitcher Henderson Alvarez in the

third inning.

Miller’s only early runner was

erased on a double play, and the

right-hander faced the minimum

24 batters in the first eight innings.

He threw a first-pitch strike to 26

of 29 batters and finished with 94

pitches, 70 for strikes.

And Miller was still part of his-

tory: There were seven shutouts

in 15 games Sunday, only the ninth

day with at least seven blankings

in major league history.

Miller had the only complete

game among the winners in the

whitewashings. Edinson Volquez

(seven innings) led Kansas City

over the New York Yankees 6-0;

Mike Wright (71⁄3 innings) pitched

Baltimore over the Los Angeles

Angels 3-0 in his major league

debut; A.J. Burnett (seven innings)

worked around five walks as

Pittsburgh beat the Chicago Cubs

3-0; Sean O’Sullivan (six innings)

pitched Philadelphia over Arizo-

na 6-0 for his first big league win

since May 12, 2011; Mike Bolsing-

er (six innings) helped the Los An-

geles Dodgers beat Colorado 1-0;

and James Paxton (eight innings)

pitched Seattle over the Boston

Red Sox 5-0.

The record of eight shutouts was

set June 4, 1972.

Miller’s no-hit bid is history; so is Marlins’ manager

THE A S S OC I AT ED PRE S S

Left, Atlanta pitcher Shelby Miller was one out away from a no-hitter against Miami on Sunday but gave up two hits in theninth inning. Right, Mike Redmond stands in the dugout during the ninth, which would turn out to be his final inning as theMarlins’ manager. His firing was announced after the game, one of seven shutouts in 15 contests Sunday.

Hamilton return expectedin upcoming weekARLINGTON, Texas — JoshHamilton could be anotherweek from getting back to themajors with the Texas Rangers.Texas General ManagerJon Daniels said Sunday thatHamilton is “clearly makingprogress” in the slugger’spersonal spring training sincebeing re-acquired three weeksago in a trade from the Angels.Daniels initially saidHamilton’s return wouldprobably be in the upcomingnine-game road trip. He latersaid it was “more likely” thatit would be the series at theIndians, which starts a weekfrom Monday.Hamilton went 4 for 5, allsingles, Saturday night in hisfirst game with Class AA Frisco.The Rangers have Mondayoff before a three-game seriesin Boston. They go to NewYork for a three-game weekendseries against the Yankeesand then play three games inCleveland. Their next homegame is May 28 against theRed Sox.In other news:» Cardinals:Will give JaimeGarcia his first start of theseason Thursday.»Marlins: ActivatedHenderson Alvarez from the DL.» Rangers: Placed RossDetwiler on the 15-day DL.» Tigers: Shane Greene isexpected to make his nextstart, bouncing back from anerve issue his last outing.

— The Associated Press

MAJOR LEAGUE NOTES

WORLD-HERALD NEWS SERVICE

CENTRALIA, Ill. — Itwasn’t pretty, but IowaWestern’s effort in Sunday’sNorthern District winnersbracket contest was enoughto get the Reivers to Mon-day’s championship game.

No. 2 Iowa Western (51-5)won its 34th consecutivegame with a 7-6 walk-offvictory against Kaskaskia.IWCC committed five errorsand saw a 5-0 lead disappearby the seventh inning.

The Reivers reclaimed a6-5 advantage in their half ofthe seventh, but Kaskaskiaevened the score in the top ofthe ninth.

The Reivers then loadedthe bases in the bottom of theinning for Matt Hoeg, whodrew a walk to win it.

Iowa Western will againmeet Kaskaskia at 11 a.m.Monday. The Reivers needone win to advance to the NJ-CAA World Series in GrandJunction, Colorado, startingMay 23. Kaskaskia wouldneed to win twice to advance.

Dom Thompson-Williamswent 2 for 4 with two RBIsand a run Sunday. JaredGates added two hits, an RBIand a run, and Ryan Merrilland Jake Scudder also en-joyed multi-hit games.

Kaskaskia (33-13) .............. 000 400 101—6 6 2Iowa Western (51-5) ........... 401 000 101—7 11 5W: Young. L: Probst. 2B: IW, Scudder, Thomp-son-Williams.

IOWAWESTERN 7,KASKASKIA 6

Reiver rally runswin streak to34