page_title: 2005 Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team
section_title: Season review
hierarchical_section_title: 2005 Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team / Season review
caption_attribution_description: Alex Gordon
context_page_description: The 2005 Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team was Mike Anderson's 3rd year as Head coach. The Huskers played their home games at Hawks Field.
context_section_description: Summary
  While the 2005 Nebraska baseball season will be remembered for many things, it was the never-say-die attitude that captured the hearts of Husker fans around the state.
  Heading into the final weekend of the season, the Huskers were two games behind Baylor in the conference race. Nebraska won its first two games against Kansas State, while Baylor and Missouri split their first two contests, putting the Huskers in position to earn a share of the league crown. Behind Kroenke's complete-game gem on Senior Day, Nebraska posted a 3-1 victory, while Missouri capped NU's title hopes by beating Baylor in Waco later that day, giving the two teams a share of the Big 12 crown. The two teams would meet one week later with the Big 12 Tournament title on the line. The game was scoreless until the sixth when Andy Gerch's sacrifice fly plated Gordon for the game's only run. Duensing and Jensen combined on a three-hit shutout to give NU a 1-0 win over the Bears and the Huskers’ fourth Big 12 Tourney crown since 1999 and winning the regular-season and tournament titles in the same season for the second time in school history (2001).
  Never was the Huskers’ true spirit more evident than on college baseball's grandest stage – the College World Series in Omaha. Trailing 5-3 in the ninth inning, the Huskers were down to their last at-bat, looking to extend the most successful season in school history. As they had done 20 times during the season, Nebraska began to rally, opening the inning with two hits before Alex Gordon's RBI single pulled NU within 5-4. Two batters later, freshman Andy Gerch provided one of the most memorable moments in school history, sending an 0-2 pitch into the left-field bleachers, giving the Huskers a 7-5 lead. Alas, the lead was short-lived, as Arizona State scored twice in the bottom of the ninth – including a game-tying homer by Jeff Larish – before ending one of the most memorable games in recent CWS history two innings later for an 8-7 ASU win.
  For Head Coach Mike Anderson, the heart shown by the Huskers was a characteristic that he saw develop throughout the year. "This was a resilient group all year long," Anderson said. "We fought and fought, and it didn’t surprise me at all that we scored those runs in the ninth." While its resiliency allowed the Huskers to never be out of a contest, Anderson credited the team's selflessness as the catalyst for going from eighth to first in the Big 12 and returning to the College World Series for the first time since 2002.
  For Nebraska's eight seniors, 2005 capped a remarkable five-year run in which NU won 237 games, claimed three Big 12 titles and made three College World Series appearances.
  "We’re at the World Series this year because we had a group of young men that gave of themselves for their team," Anderson said. "It's the most unique group of young men that I’ve ever been around. They bought into the team concept. They understood the team concept and got to where they are at because of the team concept. I can’t say how proud I am of them."
  A total of six Huskers were selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, including four players in the top 10 rounds. Alex Gordon became Nebraska's fifth first-round pick, as he was chosen by Kansas City with the No. 2 overall pick. Brian Duensing and Zach Kroenke joined Gordon as players taken in the first five rounds, as they were picked in the third and fifth rounds, respectively. The trio's selections marked the first time that three Huskers were taken in the first five rounds of the draft.
  Pitching
  Nebraska relied on the combination of a dominant pitching staff, strong defense and clutch hitting to put together a 57-15 record and sweep the Big 12 regular season and tournament titles en route to a berth in the College World Series. The 57 wins not only led the nation, but easily topped the previous school mark of 51 set in 2000. The Huskers finished the year ranked as high as fifth in the national polls after opening the year at No. 50 in Baseball America's preseason issue. Also, their No. 2 ranking in Base
caption: Alex Gordon was the #2 overall pick in the 2005 MLB draft
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