Arlington, Texas-Matt Hopper hit his eighth home run and strung together his first four-hit game of the season to lead a 15-hit Cornhusker attack as the second-seeded Nebraska baseball team pounded out an 11-9 victory over seventh-seeded Baylor in front of 8,120 fans in the first round of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Baseball Tournament at The Ballpark in Arlington on Wednesday afternoon.

The Huskers, who improved to 40-17 and extended their overall winning streak to nine games, and their Big 12 Tournament winning streak to 10 games, will advance to play No. 3 seed Texas Tech (41-16) in Thursday's first winner's bracket game at 5 p.m. The Red Raiders, who extended their winning streak to 16 games, advanced with a 5-4, 12-inning win over sixth-seeded Kansas State in the tournament's opening game.

Baylor, which dipped to 34-23 overall, will meet Kansas State (28-24) in the tournament's first elimination game on Thursday at 10 a.m.

Nebraska, which produced its fourth consecutive 40-win season, jump started its pursuit of a fourth straight Big 12 Tournament title by battering Baylor pitching for 11 runs on 15 hits, including four-run outbursts in the second and sixth innings. The Huskers added single runs in the third, fifth and eighth innings, including Hopper's third career home run in Big 12 Tournament play in the fifth inning. Along with Hopper, who led the Huskers with four hits, two RBIs and two runs scored, freshman outfielder Daniel Bruce enjoyed a solid tournament debut by producing three RBIs with a pair of singles, while also scoring a run to help the Huskers.

Nebraska's trio of Texans in the starting lineup also provided plenty of production. Will Bolt, a native of Conroe, Texas, tied his season high with three hits, including an RBI single to drive in NU's first run in the second inning, before adding leadoff doubles in both the sixth and seventh innings. Bolt increased his career school record hit total to 266, while extending his hitting streak to 12 games. It was Bolt's sixth multiple-hit game during the streak.

Justin Seely, a native of Nacogdoches, Texas, led off NU's four-run second inning with a walk to score NU's first run on Bolt's single, while helping to produce Nebraska's lone run in the third inning with a sacrifice bunt to advance Jeff Blevins to third after his leadoff double. Seely added an RBI on a groundout to short to drive in fellow Texan Jed Morris with NU's final run in a four-run sixth. Morris, a native of Seabrook, Texas, drove in a pair of runs to increase his Big 12-leading RBI total to 72, driving in NU's fourth run in the second inning with a groundout before chasing Baylor starter Jared Theodorakos with a sharp RBI single to right in a four-run sixth inning.

Despite the strong production by Husker hitters, the Baylor bats kept the Bears close, responding to every Nebraska rally. After NU scored four runs in the bottom of the second, Baylor answered with three runs in the top of third off Husker starter Aaron Marsden, highlighted by Tim Hartshorn's single that drove in a pair of runs, before a Chris Durbin sacrifice fly to right with one out cut Nebraska's advantage to 4-3.

The Huskers added a single run in the bottom of the third inning, as Jeff Blevins led off with a double and advanced to third on Seely's sacrifice bunt, before scoring on John Grose's sacrifice fly to give NU a 5-3 edge. Baylor managed a run in the top of the fourth inning on David Murphy's sixth home run of the year to cut the Nebraska advantage to 5-4. After Hopper's homer traveled 415 feet to center field to give NU a 6-4 edge, Baylor responded with back-to-back doubles by Jared Clements and Murphy to trim the lead back to 6-5 in the top of the sixth.

After the Huskers hung four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, Baylor came back with four of its own in the top of the seventh, capped by Ross Bennett's three-run homer off reliever Phil Shirek to cut the Husker lead to 10-9. But Nebraska reliever Steve Hale shut the door on the Bears the rest of the way, tossing 2.1 scoreless innings to pick up his second save of the year, while Drew Anderson provided the Huskers with an insurance run with an RBI single to score Hopper in the eighth.

Despite being tagged for a career-high six runs on five hits in just six innings of work, Marsden picked up his seventh consecutive victory to improve to 8-1 on the year. Nebraska bats stung Baylor starter Jared Theodorakos, who fell to 3-6, for 10 runs, nine earned in 5.1 innings of work after managing just one run on four hits in six innings in a loss to Theodorakos and the Bears on March 10.

All-American Shane Komine (6-0, 1.84 ERA) will take the hill against the Red Raiders Thursday in pursuit of his seventh victory of the season.