The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Nebraska
No. 6 Baseball defeats Nebraska, 5-4, at Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship
05.26.2007 | Baseball
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Despite being eliminated from the tournament, No. 6 Texas left the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship on a winning note with a 5-4 victory over Nebraska at the Bricktown Ballpark.
Texas drew first blood in the first inning. Jordan Danks hit a leadoff single to leftfield, stole second base and scored on a single up the middle by Chance Wheeless.
Nebraska tied the game in the bottom half of the first. DJ Belfonte reached base when Texas shortstop Chais Fuller dropped a pop fly. Belfonte moved to second when Craig Corriston was hit by a pitch and scored on a single by Andrew Brown.
The Longhorns reclaimed the lead in the top of the second when Preston Clark blasted a solo home run, his eighth dinger of the season, down the leftfield line, staking Texas to a 2-1 lead.
UT tacked on two more runs in the top of the third. Danks and Kyle Russell drew walks to start the inning. Wheeless plated Danks and put runners at the corners with a single to rightfield. Bradley Suttle inflated the cushion to 4-1 with a sacrifice fly to leftfield, pushing Russell across.
Nebraska's Jake Opitz hit a two-run single in the third to cut the lead to 4-3.
Texas added an insurance run in the eighth with an RBI single by Fuller to take a 5-3 lead.
Wheeless went 4-for-4 with one run scored and two RBI. Danks went 2-for-4 with two runs. Fuller was 2-for-4 with one RBI.
Wood (8-1) picked up the win with 3.2 innings of scoreless relief. He scattered one hit while striking out one. Boone allowed one run on three hits and two walks while striking out two over 2.1 innings to earn his 13th save of the season.
Texas expects to return to action at the NCAA Division I Regional Championship from June 1-4. Regional sites will be announced Sunday at 2:30 p.m. and brackets will be released Monday at 11:30 a.m.
