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.

Nebraska Postgame Notes
*-With Wednesday�s win, Nebraska extended its winning streak to a season-high nine games, dating back to May 5, and recorded 40 wins for the fourth consecutive season. It is the first time NU recorded four straight 40-win seasons since a seven-year stretch from 1979 to 1985.

*-The Huskers extended their Big 12 Tournament winning streak to 10 games, and improved to 14-1 in the conference tournament under Coach Dave Van Horn.

*- Nebraska improved to 3-0 all-time against Baylor in the Big 12 Tournament including wins over the Bears in the championship game in 1999 and 2000

*-Nebraska�s three starters from the state of Texas (Will Bolt--Conroe, Jed Morris--Seabrook, and Justin Seely--Nacogdoches) combined for five hits, four RBIs and four runs scored.

*- Will Bolt�s second-inning RBI single extended his hitting streak to 12 games, dating back to April 30. His three hits against Baylor matched his season high (four other times), while increasing his school record career hit total to 266.

*- Matt Hopper�s sixth-inning home run was his eighth of the season and 41st of his career. He tied Darin Erstad (1993-95) for fourth on Nebraska�s all-time home run list. In addition, his four hits was a season high.

*- The six runs allowed by NU pitcher Aaron Marsden were the most he has allowed in an outing all season. The left-hander had allowed just 11 earned runs in his previous 10 starts. Despite allowing six runs in six innings, Marsden still won his seventh consecutive decision.

*- Daniel Bruce�s three RBIs was his highest single game total since he drove in three runs against Texas-Pan American on April 24.

*-Jeff Leise�s infield single in the seventh inning marked his 200th career hit. He needs three hits to break into NU�s career top-10 list. *- Steve Hale picked up his second save of the season and first since Feb. 23, with 2.1 scoreless innings of relief.

Nebraska Head Coach Dave Van Horn

On the game

�For the first game, you wouldn�t expect it to be an 11-9 game. But on the other hand, I thought our guys came out and swung the bat aggressively, and that gave us a chance to win. We felt after about the fourth inning that we were going to have to score a lot of runs to win. Baylor was really swinging the bat.

On the performance of Aaron Marsden

�I guess I can look at it two different ways. I can just give credit to Baylor; they just went out there and got after it. You can also look at it, as that was his worst outing of the year. It was probably a little bit of both. His (Marsden) breaking pitch was not good and his fastball was running away from him and he didn�t have any control. He was behind the hitters all day long.�

On the hitting

�It was great to see. I think Daniel (Bruce) had three hits, including one with the bases loaded that gave us a little bit of a cushion. Matt (Hopper) just kept swinging the bat. I think he had three hits on the day.We got a lot of two out hits today that drove in some runs. The first half of the year we hardly got any two out hits. That has been the difference lately.�

Source: University of Nebraska Athletic Dept.