Carlos Gonzalez set the tone with a piece of baseball history in the Colorado Rockies’ 11-5 win over the Houston Astros at Coors Field. After hitting three home runs in last night’s victory, Gonzalez hit a three-run jack in the first inning of last night’s game, giving him four consecutive at-bats with a home run. He’s the 38^th player in Major League Baseball history to accomplish that feat. The Rockies also got a home run from Marco Scutaro and a three-RBI night from Michael Cuddyer to back Jeremy Guthrie, who worked seven innings to earn his first Coors Field win. The victory is Colorado’s fourth straight, and gave them their first series sweep of the season. The Rockies open a three-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight in Denver. ESPN Radio 1410 has the action, with pregame coverage starting at 7:05 and the first pitch at 7:40.

With two scholarships left to hand out for his 2012-2013 recruiting class, Tim Miles remains on the hunt for players to bolster the Husker men’s basketball team. The Huskers are expected to get a visit from 6’10” forward Walter Pitchford, who is transferring from Florida after appearing in 13 games as a freshman this past season. Pitchford was rated a three-star prospect out of Summit Christian Academy prep school in East Lansing, Michigan. He would have to sit out the 2012-2013 season, per NCAA transfer rules.

The Creighton Blue Jays shocked the Missouri Valley Conference by sweeping to a tournament championship as the lowest seed in the field. Now, as the second-lowest seed in the 64-team NCAA tournament field, they’ll look to keep the magic going. Creighton (26-28) opens tournament play tonight when they take on the second overall national seed, UCLA (42-14), in Los Angeles. The Jays are expected to start their ace pitcher, lefty Ty Blach. UCLA is projected to counter with righty Adam Plutko. First pitch is scheduled for 9 PM.

Before Thursday night’s game, the Colorado Rockies placed shortstop Troy Tulowitzki on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left groin. Tulowitzki had been dealing with nagging leg injuries all season, and aggravated the groin running out a ground ball in the seventh inning of Wednesday night’s game. The two-time All Star is batting .287 with eight home runs and 27 RBI this season. He had hit safely in his last nine games with a .389 average before the injury.

(From the University of Nebraska Athletic Department – by Hilary Winter)

A total of 87 Nebraska student-athletes were recognized on Thursday as Academic All-Big Ten recipients. The list of honored Nebraska student-athletes includes 17 baseball players, six men’s golf student-athletes, three men’s tennis players, 10 softball student-athletes, four members of the Huskers’ women’s bowling team, two women’s golf student-athletes, four members of the women’s rifle team, seven women’s tennis athletes and 34 members of the Huskers’ track and field team.

To be eligible for Academic All-Big Ten selection, student-athletes must be letterwinners who are in at least their second academic year at their institution and carry a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.

Among the total group of 1,154 student-athletes honored by the Big Ten Conference, at least 19 of those student-athletes have maintained unblemished cumulative grade-point averages. Nebraska boasts four of those student-athletes in Sam Stucky (Sr., Baseball, Agricultural Economics), Cami Jiskra (Gr., Track and Field, Criminology & Criminal Justice), Anne Martin (Jr., Track and Field, Elementary Education) and Katie White (Sr., Track and Field, Nutrition Science,). Stucky was the only baseball student-athlete with a perfect GPA, while Jiskra, Martin and White make up three of 12 track and field athletes.