Yost Blanks Bears, 5-0

Lincoln ? Behind a complete-game effort from Sean Yost, the Nebraska baseball team picked up a series win with a 5-0 victory over Baylor Saturday afternoon.

Yost, a redshirt freshman from Lincoln, was magnificent in earning his first-ever Big 12 win, scattering six hits and matching his career best with six strikeouts in a 127-pitch gem.

Yost, who had never pitched past the sixth in his previous seven starts, improved as the game progressed, as he did not allow a runner to reach third base after the third inning. He retired nine in a row at one point and didn’t allow more than one hitter to reach after the first inning.

“He did a great job,” Nebraska Coach Mike Anderson said. “He had a good pitching performance and it allows the offense to do some special things and play a little more aggressively. His first inning was his worst inning, but after that he settled in and located. That is the best I’ve seen him throw his off-speed and the best composure I’ve seen him have all year long. It’s great to see.”

Yost (2-5) became the first Husker freshman since Jamie Rodrigue in 2000 to toss a complete game shutout, as Nebraska (24-28-1, 7-19 Big 12) clinched the regular-season series from the Bears for the third straight season. The Huskers will go for the series sweep on Sunday afternoon in the regular-season finale.

Yost has pitched well in the second half of conference play, going 1-1 with a 2.28 ERA in his last four Big 12 starts, but had not been rewarded with a Big 12 win until Saturday.

The Bears (27-22, 10-15 Big 12) threatened in the first as a one-out single to Joey Hainsfurther and a walk to Shaver Hansen put runners on first and second with one out, but Yost buckled down and retired the next two hitters to get out of trouble.

That momentum continued to build in the bottom of the frame when the Huskers pushed across a pair of runs off of Baylor starter Willie Kempf, who allowed five hits over seven innings to drop to 4-4 on the year.

A leadoff double by DJ Belfonte started the rally before Jake Mort was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Adam Bailey made it a 1-0 game with an RBI single to right before Tyler Farst lofted a sacrifice fly to center to score Mort and give the hosts a two-run cushion.
The game remained 2-0 until the fifth, when Kyle Bubak walked and scored from first on Cody Neer’s RBI double into the left field corner.
The Huskers extend their lead in the sixth, getting a solo homer off the bat of Nick Sullivan, as the senior hit his seventh homer of the year and fifth of the month in extending his hit streak to 10 games. Jeff Tezak then doubled, moved to third on a grounder by Bubak and stole home to make it 5-0. It was NU’s first successful steal of home since last March.

By then, Yost was in a groove and only allowed two runners to reach over the final two innings, as he capped the performance with a strikeout of Adam Hornung to give NU its first shutout of the season.

The Huskers will wrap up the 2009 season on Sunday afternoon, as they take on Baylor at 1:05 p.m. The Husker senior class of Erik Bird, Jake Mort, Cody Neer, Nick Sullivan and Jeff Tezak will be honored in pregame ceremonies. Bird will then look for his third win of the season, as he makes his first-ever Big 12 start.