Huskers Fall to Baylor, 9-2

Lincoln ? DJ Belfonte and Bryce Nimmo had two hits apiece, but it was not enough, as Nebraska fell to Baylor, 9-2, in the series opener between the two teams Friday night at Hawks Field.

The Huskers (25-21, 10-12 Big 12) scored their only runs of the night up in the bottom of the ninth on a one-out pinch-hit RBI single by redshirt freshman John Lee and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Andrew Brown. For Lee, it was both his first career hit and RBI, as he had only had one plate appearance all season entering Friday’s contest.
 
Belfonte, who reached safely in four of five plate appearances, went 2-for-3 and was hit by two pitches, while Nimmo went 2-for-4 with a run scored in a losing effort.

Unfortunately, the Huskers ran into the hot pitching of Baylor right-hander Jeff Mandel, who spun 7.1 innings of shutout ball for the Bears, who improved to 28-21 and 9-13 in the Big 12. Mandel (6-7) scattered six hits and struck out three, while he benefited from a Bears’ offense that pounded out 14 hits, including homers from Beemer Weems, Chase Gerdes and Dustin Dickerson.
 
Gerdes led the offensive attack with a 4-for-5 night, while driving in two runs and scoring three times, while Weems, Dickerson and Matt Czimskey all drove in two runs apiece in the victory.
 
Tony Watson (5-4) took the loss for the Huskers, allowing eight runs on 11 hits over 6.2 innings in the losing effort. The southpaw struck out eight, but allowed two runs in four separate innings, as the eight runs allowed matched his career high.

The Bears would get all the runs they needed in the first four innings, scoring twice in the first and adding two more in the fourth to take a 4-0 lead.  Matt Czimskey’s two-run double in the top of the first capped a string of three straight Baylor hits off the Husker left-hander. Three innings later, the Bears opened with two straight hits to put runners on second and third with no outs before a sacrifice fly from Dickerson and a two-out RBI single by Raynor Campbell made it a 4-0 game.

Baylor used the long ball to extend their lead, as two-run homer from Gerdes in the fifth made it 5-0 before Weems’ two-out, two-run homer in the seventh chased Watson and gave the visitors an 8-0 lead. Dickerson wrapped up the Bears’ scoring one inning later with a solo homer off of reliever Tim Radmacher.

The Huskers got on the board in the ninth, as Nimmo opened the inning with his second hit of the night before a Belftonte infield single two batters later put runners on first and second with one out. Lee then lined an 0-2 pitch to right for the Huskers’ first run before Brown capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly to center.

The Huskers will continue the series Saturday afternoon with a 2:05 p.m. first pitch. The game will he carried across the state on the Husker Sports Network and on Huskers.com, while the contest will also be shown state-wide on Nebraska Educational Television.