Today on ESPN Radio 1410, the North Platte Bulldog softball team begins play in the A7 district tournament at the Dowhower Softball Complex. The Bulldogs are the seventh overall seed in Class A and the top seed in their district with a 17-10 record. They face a familiar foe in fourth-seed Kearney in their first game at 2 PM. North Platte swept a double-header from Kearney back on September 11. Second-seed Bellevue West plays third-seed Omaha Central. The winners and losers play each other at 4 PM. ESPN Radio 1410’s coverage of the Bulldogs starts at 1:45.

The Nebraska football team practiced for just over two hours on Wednesday on the Ed and Joyanne Gass practice fields in preparation for its Big Ten road showdown against the Ohio State Buckeyes.

The Husker defense will have their work cut out for them against dual-threat quarterback Braxton Miller from Ohio State. Linebackers coach Ross Els and the rest of the NU defense preparing for Miller’s running threat he poses on defenses. “He runs like a running back.” Els said, “He is a really good quarterback though.”

Els also talked about how he really enjoyed seeing multiple linebackers step up against the Badgers last Saturday night, including senior linebacker Sean Fisher. “I think Sean finally got to see his kind of offense.” Els said, “If you look at that fourth and one play at the end, Sean was the one they were trying to isolate and he went up and plugged the whole to stop the play.”

One thing that has been a high point for the Huskers is the relationship between running backs Rex Burkhead and Ameer Abdullah. The duo has combined for 759 yards rushing and eight touchdowns. Running backs coach Ron Brown really likes how they have built a solid relationship on and off the field, “Those two guys are like a magnetic force that attracts to one and another.” Brown said, “They have that competitive, I want to excel kind of mentality.”

— Gage Peake, Nebraska Sports Information

The North Platte Community College Lady Knights split a double-header at McDonald-Belton Gymnasium last night. In their first match, they fell to Northeastern Junior College in four sets (19-25, 23-25, 25-22, 18-25). They rebounded in the nightcap and snapped a five-match losing streak with a four-set victory over McCook Community College (25-13, 25-10, 14-25, 8-25). Whitney Smith led the Lady Knights with 16 kills in the loss to the Plainswomen. Sandrina Hallahan’s 13 kills led the winning effort against the Indians. The Lady Knights are now 11-12 on the season. They play at a quad at Doane College on Sunday.

The Colorado Rockies ended a sour season on a high note. DJ LeMahieu’s RBI single in the fourth inning proved to be the winning run in a 2-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Rockies scored both their runs in the fourth, thanks to a Diamondback error and LeMahieu’s hit. Jeff Francis pitched five strong innings to earn the victory, allowing just one run on five hits while striking out three. Matt Belisle recorded the final out as the last of six relief pitchers used by the Rockies. The Rockies had ten hits on the night, with Jordan Pacheco and Jonathan Herrera recording three apiece and LeMahieu chipping in two. The victory means the Rockies finish their season with a record of 64-98, the worst record in franchise history by three games. That gives them the third worst record in all of Major League Baseball.