LINCOLN -- John Cole continued his torrid streak at the plate with three hits including a home run in the first inning and an RBI single in the fourth to drive top-seeded Nebraska to a 5-4 win over No. 2 Rutgers in the NCAA Regional semifinal game in front of 4,936 fans at Buck Beltzer Stadium in Lincoln on Saturday.

With the win, Nebraska improved to 47-14 on the year with its sixth consecutive victory and fifth straight win in NCAA Regional Tournament play. The Huskers will play the winner of Saturday�s third and final game between Rutgers and Northern Iowa, which is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start. Nebraska guaranteed itself a spot in Sunday�s championship game at 1 p.m. If the Huskers lose that game, a second championship game will be played 50 minutes following the first game. Rutgers fell to 41-16 with the loss and will play the the 35-27 Panthers in tonight�s elimination game.

Cole�s bat helped make a winner of junior right-hander R.D. Spiehs, who pitched 5.1 scoreless innings of relief to pick up his third straight victory. Spiehs improved to 8-3 on the season with his second win as a reliever. Husker closer Thom Ott pitched 2.2 innings of one-hit relief to close the game and set the Nebraska single-season record with his 11th save of the year.

Cole�s hits were three of only eight Husker hits on the afternoon, as Nebraska took advantage of six walks and one hit batter by three Rutgers pitchers. The Scarlet Knights out-hit the Huskers, 12-8, but managed only four runs while leaving 11 runners on base. Starter Tom Crohan, who allowed four runs, three earned, on four hits, while walking three and striking out one in 3.2 innings, took the loss to fall to 6-2 on the season.

Rutgers wasted little time in roughing up Nebraska starter Jamie Rodrigue, scoring three runs on four hits in a third of an inning before knocking out the Husker left-hander in his shortest outing of the season. Rodrigue left with the bases loaded, but R.D. Spiehs bailed out the Huskers by getting Steve Normane to ground into an inning ending double play on Spiehs� first pitch.

Brian Ciemniecki led off the game with a bloop double to center and advanced to third on Matt Wolski�s fly ball out to right field to set up Val Majewski�s RBI single through the hole into right field to give the Scarlet Knights a 1-0 lead. Billy McCarthy continued the rally with an RBI double to the wall in right-center. McCarthy advanced to third on Will Bolt�s throw home trying to cut down Majewski at the plate. Rodrigue then walked Mike Popowski and Jeff Marciniak to load the bases, before Ryan Lillis drove an RBI single to center to bring in McCarthy to give Rutgers a 3-0 lead.

Nebraska answered with a run in the bottom of the first on Cole�s lead-off homer down the rightfield line to cut the Rutgers� lead to 3-1. Cole�s homer, his eighth of the season, was Nebraska first lead-off homer to start a game since Bryan Schmidt�s blast against Oklahoma on April 18, 1998.

Spiehs continued to pitch out of trouble over the next 5.1 innings, allowing no runs on six hits, while walking two and striking out two. Brandon Penas relieved Spiehs with two outs and runners on first and second in the sixth and got Majewski to fly out to the wall in dead center to end the inning. Through the first six innings, Rutgers stranded nine runners.

While Spiehs battled his way out of trouble, the Huskers caused some trouble of their own for Rutgers at the plate. In the third, Adam Stern drew a one-out walk and moved to third on Matt Hopper�s double. Dan Johnson drove in Stern with a sacrifice fly to center for his 82nd RBI of the season to cut the lead to 3-2.

The Huskers took their first lead of the game on Cole�s two-out RBI single through the hole between third and short that drove in Jeff Leise from second with the go-ahead run at 4-3. Leise had knotted the score at 3-3 with a two-out RBI single of his own, which drove in Josh Hesse from third after Hesse led off the inning with a double to the wall in right-center and moved to third on Jed Morris� fly ball to right.

The Huskers added an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh for Ott, as Jeff Blevins� RBI single scored Hopper from second to take a 5-3 lead.

Ott was perfect for 2.1 innings before allowing a two-out walk to McCarthy, who took second uncontested two pitches later, before an RBI single by Popowski cut Nebraska�s lead to 5-4. But Ott got Marciniak on a come-backer to end the game.

Tournament Note
With a session four and Buck Beltzer 0 Stadium crowd of 4,936, the total attendance at the NCAA Lincoln Regional increased to 12,304, for an average attendance of 3,076 through four games.   

Nebraska Quotes
Coach Dave Van Horn
On Nebraska�s Performance:
�We were all frustrated in the dugout. We made a mistake to start the game off with in the outfield, so we weren�t off to a good start. One thing we did do was that we kept battling. R.D. had good stuff today. He battled and battled and got some out. We got out of a first and third, nobody out jam, then we cut the score to 3-1 and after that we started chipping away. It was also one of those games that we felt like we were a hit away from breaking the game open.�

R.D. Spiehs
On the Game:
�I was in the bullpen and saw that they were playing well, and obviously that they are a good team. I justed wanted to go out there and hold them to maybe one more run, but the main thing there was the defense. We made plays left and right. All day long the defense was there for us and we got clutch hits at clutch times.�

On His Mindset Coming Out of the Bullpen:
�I just wanted to come in and throw strikes. A three-run lead is something that our team can definitely come back from. I just wanted to make sure the team stayed close. Eventually we just battled back and overcame them.�

John Cole
On the Flow of the Game :
�That was probably one of the most up and down games we�ve been involved with this year. They came out smoking in the first inning and got us on our heels. That was a tough team for sure. We knew after that first inning that we were going to have to get our bats going, and when we started getting those key runs across we started to get comfortable. When we got that lead, we had confidence in our bullpen that we were going to keep it.�

Nebraska Notes
• Nebraska, which improved to 47-14 overall, extended its winning streak to six games.
• The crowd of 4,936 in Game 4 of the NCAA Lincoln Regional was the largest crowd in Buck Beltzer Stadium history, eclipsing the 4,604 fans that attended Game 1 of the tournament on Friday.
• The Huskers have won five straight NCAA Regional games after going 3-0 at the 2000 NCAA Regional in Minneapolis and improving to 2-0 in the 2001 NCAA Regional in Lincoln.
• Nebraska improved to 11-10 all-time in NCAA Tournament play.
• Thom Ott pitched 2.2 innings of one-hit relief for his 11th save of the season to break Nebraska�s single-season save record, previously held by Mike Bellows, who had 10 saves in 1994. Ott also increased his career saves total to 17, which is also a school record.
• John Cole�s lead-off homer in the first was Nebraska�s first lead-off home run of the season and the club�s first since Byran Schmidt�s lead-off homer against Oklahoma on April 18, 1998.
• Cole�s three-hit performance was his 29th multiple-hit game and seventh three-hit effort of the season. Cole, who is 4-for-10 in two tournament games, has a team-leading 90 hits on the season. Cole needs two more hits to crack Nebraska�s single-season top 10 list, and with 212 career hits, he moved into a tie for sixth on the NU all-time hit list with Joe Scherger (1977-80).
• R.D. Spiehs improved to 8-3 on the season with his third straight victory. It was Spiehs� second win as a reliever this season and improved his career record to 21-6. He also moved into No. 4 on Nebraska�s career victory list ahead of Jim Sandstedt�s 20 wins from 1978 to 1980.
• Dan Johnson�s RBI in the third inning was his 82nd of the season to tie Matt Hopper for Nebraska�s team lead. Johnson has driven in 14 runs in Nebraska�s last six games.

Rutgers Quotes
Coach Fred Hill
On Rutgers� Performance:
�Obviously we got off to a good start, we hit the ball pretty well, had a chance to honestly put a couple more on and then we hit into the double play. The last couple ballgames, we just can�t seem to get a key basehit when we need it. We�re struggling a lit bit that way, but for the most part we�re hitting the ball pretty well.�

On Nebraska:
�They played very well I thought. They didn�t make any errors and they got some key basehits when they had to. I think on a couple of occasions they got two-out hits, which gave them two runs and a little bit of room. That�s probably the difference in the ballgame. I thought they are a very sound team and an excellent team. But I thought we showed that we could play right with them. We just saw a pretty good ballgame today. They�re solid from top to bottom. Every kid up there looks like they can swing the bat a little bit. I think they made our pitchers work. You can�t go to 3-2 on them and expect to get an out.�