UT never pursued Texas Huskers Pribanic, Abeita
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By CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
Aaron Pribanic and Mitch Abeita are always up for a trip back to their home state. But it isn’t like the Nebraska baseball team’s series at Texas this weekend holds any special meaning to the two Huskers.
Neither ever saw himself playing for the Longhorns.
“When I was in high school, there was no reason for Texas to recruit me,” said Pribanic, a right-handed junior pitcher who will start on Sunday. “Then, I went to Hutch (Hutchinson, Kan., Community College), and Texas really doesn’t recruit out of the Jayhawk League.”
Pribanic was born in Virginia and didn’t move to Plano, Texas, until he was 8.
“My parents went to Virginia Tech, so I was a big Tech fan,” he said.
Not long after, he hit it off with another newcomer to Plano whose parents were from Nebraska and had passed down their love of the Huskers to their son. He and Pribanic are still best friends.
So you can see why he’ll have no personal agenda this weekend.
Same goes for Abeita, who grew up just south of Dallas and then spent two years at North Central Texas College, which is located in a town near the Texas-Oklahoma border.
Some people there might have an allegiance for the big school down in Austin, but Abeita, who is hitting .354 with a team-high six home runs, wasn’t one of them.
“My mom went back to college when she was 35 (to Dallas Baptist),” Abeita said. “I don’t know anybody that went to Texas.”
If he did, it probably wouldn’t matter this weekend.
“I’m kind of different in that respect. I don’t play the players or school, I play the game,” Abeita said. “But I’m always up for competition.”
Nebraska enters the series ranked No. 19 by Baseball America, sporting a sparkling 19-3-1 record that includes a 5-0-1 start in Big 12 Conference play. The No. 13 Longhorns are 17-6 overall and 4-2 in conference.
“We’ve played some quality teams already, but Texas is always good,” said Pribanic, before throwing in another reason why he’d like the Huskers to fare well this weekend. “I’ve got quite a few friends that go to school down there.”
If they’ve been following his season, they’d be impressed.
The 6-4, 200-pounder has been dominant, throwing a pair of complete games in his four starts to build a 2-0 record and 1.44 earned-run average. He’s come up big immediately at NU after initially redshirting at Hutchinson, where he developed into someone who went 6-1 last season.
Pribanic, who chose Nebraska over Florida Atlantic, has baseball in his blood. His grandfather, Jim Coates, pitched nine years in the majors. Coates was an All-Star in 1960 and, as a teammate of former NU All-American Bob Cerv, compiled a combined 18-11 record while helping the 1961 and ’62 New York Yankees to World Series championships.
“That fueled my love for the game, Pribanic said of his grandfather’s past. “I still talk to him on a weekly basis now, but it’s now more about me.”
And if grandpa asks about the Huskers?
“We’re as comfortable as you can be at this point,” he said, “and we’re trying to continue that. I don’t think it’s been an aberration, or anything.”
Along with Pribanic and Abeita, two other Texans — Craig Corriston and Tyler Farst — figure to play key roles for Nebraska this weekend.
The senior first baseman Corriston, from Paris, Texas, is hitting .298 after batting .320 for the Huskers last season. Before coming to NU, Corriston played one season at San Jacinto College in Houston, then, after taking a medical redshirt, went to Paris Junior College.
The sophomore Farst, out early with a hamstring injury and now playing play left field or at designated hitter against left-handed pitching, is batting .294. From Cedar Park, Texas, he redshirted his first season at Grayson County College in Texas before getting just 36 at-bats last year.
“We’re having a lot of fun when we play,” Abeita said. “We do things the right way. We come out to the field and everyone does the right sort of exercises, pregame rituals. It’s refreshing.
“With a lot of the teams I’ve played for in the past, it’s not uncommon to have one or two guys that are on their own, doing their own thing, kind of going in a different direction. You have so many personalities, you’re not always going to see eye to eye — but we keep trying to come to that common ground. A lot of things you don’t have to worry about. You worry about the game.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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