Even "Bricktown Magic" couldn't help Nebraska pull out of its slump as the Cornhuskers dropped their fourth consecutive game, falling to Baylor 10-4 Wednesday in first-day play of the Big 12 Conference Tournament.
No. 7-ranked Nebraska (39-13-1) entered the tournament 24-7 all-time at Bricktown Ballpark, including winning four Big 12 Tournament championships at the home of the Triple-A Oklahoma Redhawks. However, the same ills that plagued the Huskers last weekend in their three-game sweep at Missouri showed up again as NU's bullpen was once again ineffective.
The Huskers, who are off Thursday before resuming pool play at 4 p.m. Friday against Kansas State, also committed two errors, leading to three unearned runs. Nebraska pitchers allowed a season-high eight walks, including five issued by starter Dan Jennings (6-3).
"It was a tough one for us," Nebraska coach Mike Anderson. "Our style of baseball is to do the little things right.
"I think our day was summed up by probably three mental errors that we made and we had (eight) walks -- that's the difference. We gave them too many opportunities."
Baylor (32-24), which lost two out of three games at home to Nebraska in a late-April regular-season series, took advantage of nearly every break. Shaver Hansen was 3-for-4 with four RBIs, while Ben Booker and Adam Hornung drove in two runs apiece.
Heading into last weekend's series at Missouri, Nebraska appeared to in prime position. The Huskers were ranked as high as No. 5 in the national polls and figured to have a solid case to earn a national seed that would essentially lock up home-field advantage in the NCAA Tournament regionals and super regionals.
However, Missouri clubbed Nebraska by a combined score of 37-13, dropping the Huskers to the No. 3 seed for the Big 12 Tournament. While NU came here still ranked No. 7 in the pseudo RPI rankings provided by www.warrennolan.com, the Huskers no doubt were looking to strengthen their NCAA Tournament resume with a good showing at Bricktown Ballpark.
It certainly wasn't the start the Huskers had in mind.
"Every team goes through adversity and we're hitting ours right now," Nebraska senior second baseman Jake Opitz said. "You'd like to hit it earlier in the year, but we're hitting ours now. We planned for this back in January where we knew we were going to deal with adversity.
"It's baseball, it's adversity, it's going to happen. We'll be fine."
Nebraska's bullpen, which allowed 24 earned runs in 14 innings pitched in the Missouri series, was again shaky against Baylor. Jennings allowed four runs -- three earned -- after six innings, but watched Husker relievers Zach Herr, Mike Nesseth and Aaron Pribanic combined to allow six runs -- four earned -- in the final three innings.
"I still have a lot of confidence in them," Anderson said. "Our bullpen is going to come back strong.
"We're fighting some demons right now, but staying with it. Hopefully, they respond to it. It's still an OK time to overcome some things, so any time that there's a challenge or adversity like that, they can get better."
Jennings, who became the first Nebraska starter other than Johnny Dorn to lose despite turning in a quality start (six innings pitched or more with three earned runs allowed or less), said he didn't perform as well as he would've liked. The junior left-hander allowed four hits and struck out three, but walked five.
"I did my best to battle, but five walks, that's not really battling to be honest," Jennings said. "There was a lot of stuff that happened in that game. It would have been a lot more fun to see what would've happened in that game with no walks."
Meanwhile, Baylor got a solid start from Shawn Tolleson (6-4). The redshirt freshman, who missed last year after undergoing Tommy John surgery, pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing five hits and four earned runs.
Tolleson set the Huskers down in order in the first two innings -- a major factor, according to Baylor coach Steve Smith.
"I think a real key for him is how he gets started," Smith said. "His ERA in the first inning this year is something over 12.00. The rest of the game, it's under three."
With Baylor leading 4-2 in the top of the seventh, Nebraska's Herr loaded the bases on back-to-back walks and a single to right by Booker. Hansen then drilled a three-run triple down the right-field line off Nesseth to put the Bears ahead 7-2.
Hansen then scored when Hornung singled over the second baseman against a drawn-in infield, pushing the Baylor lead to 8-2.
Baylor took a 1-0 lead in the second when Dustin Dickerson's one-out sacrifice fly scored Hansen. The Bears made it 3-0 in the third on RBI singles by Raynor Campbell and Hansen in an inning that started with a throwing error by NU's Opitz at second base.
Nebraska cut its deficit to 3-2 in the fourth as Tyler Farst singled home Opitz and DJ Belfonte's single up the middle scored Mitch Abeita with no outs. However, Tolleson got NU's Cody Neer to hit into a double play and Bears right fielder Aaron Miller a sliding catch of Craig Corriston's drive to escape further damage.
"Maybe the biggest thing of the whole day was when they didn't tie the game," Smith said. "They had a chance, but then we got a double play turned, made a nice catch and kept it from blowing up."
Baylor took a 4-2 lead in the sixth when Hornung's double to right-center scored Hansen from second. It looked as if Hansen would be caught stealing as Jennings had him picked off, but NU shortstop Ben Kline couldn't handle Corriston's throw to second from first base, allowing Hansen to slide in safely.
After Baylor's four-run seventh, Nebraska tried to mount a rally in the bottom of the inning on a two-run bases-loaded single by Farst with two out. Farst fouled off several pitches in a 12-pitch at-bat to stay alive, but Belfonte was retired on a hard grounder to second to end the threat.
Booker extended Baylor's advantage to 10-4 in the eighth, drilling a two-out, two-run double off the right field fence off Nesseth. The Huskers were close to getting out of the inning unscathed, but Kline committed a two-out throwing error in the hole on a difficult play and Nesseth hit Weems with a pitch to bring up Booker.
With the loss, Nebraska no longer controls its own destiny to earn a spot in Sunday's 1 p.m. championship game. The Huskers must win their remaining two games -- Friday against No. 7 seed Kansas State and Saturday against No. 2 seed Oklahoma State -- and get some help.
"It's not over yet," Jennings said. "We're not 10-4 worse than Baylor -- we're not 10-4 worse than any team here or any team in the country, to be honest.
"The biggest thing for us is that it could be real easy to bounce back because it's not the other team beating us out there, it's us getting beat."
Smith said the game was obviously more important for the Bears than it was for Nebraska. Scrapping to earn a NCAA Tournament bid, Baylor brought back Tolleson to start after pitching last Friday night.
Meanwhile, Smith noted that the Huskers still have senior Nos. 1 and 2 starters Dorn and Thad Weber waiting to pitch.
"We saw Jennings and he's good, but he hasn't been a guy that has been out there starting on weekends," Smith said. "That's a smart move on (Nebraska's) part. They're not in a must-win situation here."
Baylor 10, Nebraska 4
Baylor (32-24) 012 001 420 -- 10 9 0
Nebraska (39-13-1) 000 200 200 -- 4 7 2
W -- Tolleson (6-4). L -- Jennings (6-3). Sv. -- Kempf (2). 2B -- Baylor, Booker (11), Hornung (12). 3B -- Baylor, Hansen (6).
Big 12 Roundup
Oklahoma 4, Texas A&M 1
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Andrew Doyle pitched a complete-game five-hitter and struck out a career-high 12 batters as Oklahoma upset top-seeded Texas A&M 4-1 on Wednesday in pool play in the Big 12 Conference baseball tournament.
Oklahoma (33-23-1) was the eighth and final team to qualify for the tournament and had lost three regular-season games to Texas A&M (42-15). But the Aggies' late-season struggles continued as they lost their seventh straight game.
Doyle, a sophomore who leads the Sooners in strikeouts with 70 this season, threw the first complete game of his career. Doyle (8-4) and didn't allow a runner past second base after Texas A&M scored its lone run in the third inning on a home run by Kevin Gonzalez.
Oklahoma broke a 1-1 tie with a 3-run sixth-inning outburst keyed by Aaron Baker, who drove in a run with a double to left-center field and eventually scored.
Scott Migl (3-3) allowed six hits and four runs -- all unearned -- in six innings for the Aggies. Texas A&M is hoping a strong tournament showing will be enough to land a national No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament.
Missouri 3, Texas 2, 10 innings
Jacob Priday homered and Trevor Coleman drove in the winning run with a 10th-inning single to lift Missouri to a 3-2 win over Texas.
Priday's two-out, two-run sixth inning homer tied the game after the Longhorns (34-20) scored single runs on RBI groundouts by Russell Moldenhauer in the second and Brandon Belt in the fifth.
Neither team scored again until the 10th, when Ryan Lollis led off with a single and after an out Priday singled to send Lollis to third.
Coleman followed with the game-winning hit for the Tigers (38-17).
Reliever Kyle Gibson (9-1) allowed two hits and struck out four through 2 2/3 innings for the win.
Texas reliever Cole Green (3-5) took the loss, allowing one run on five hits and striking out four through 3 1/3 innings.
Kansas St. 3, Oklahoma St. 2
Nate Tenbrink had two RBIs to lead Kansas State to a 3-2 victory over higher-seeded Oklahoma State.
The seventh-seeded Wildcats (28-27) never trailed, scoring all of its runs by the end of the fourth inning.
Oklahoma State (40-16), seeded second, finally got on the scoreboard in the seventh inning and added another run in the bottom of the eighth frame before time ran out.
Tenbrink finished 1-for-5 and Dane Yelovich had one RBI for Kansas State.
Brad Hutt (7-4) allowed six hits and one run in 6 2-3 innings for the victory. Daniel Edwards allowed one hit and struck out five in two innings of relief for his first save.
Donnie Webb and Thomas Belza each had one RBI for Oklahoma State.
Tyler Blandford (4-5) allowed eight hits and three runs in 7 2-3 innings in the loss.
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