In a game that did not start until 10:09 p.m. and was delayed for 11 minutes beginning at 12:10 a.m. because of lighting problems, the Huskers struggled to find their swings against Baylor�s Mark McCormick. The freshman right-hander notched eight strikeouts and held Nebraska to just two hits and four walks while allowing two runs in seven innings to improve to 6-2 on the season.

After the lights came back on, McCormick gave up an infield single to pinch hitter Bubbs Merrill to lead off the top of the eighth inning, before walking Jeff Leise on four straight pitches to put runners at first and second with nobody out. McCormick was replaced by right-hander Abe Woody, who struck out Joe Simokaitis on three pitches and got Matt Hopper and Alex Gordon to fly out to end NU�s only other serious threat of the game. Woody picked up his third save of the season with two innings of scoreless relief.

Gordon was the only other Husker to notch a hit, while Hopper reached on Baylor�s only error of the game and Joe Gullion drew a pair of walks.

The Huskers, who were the Big 12 regular-season champions, fell to 44-16 overall and were eliminated from the tournament, while Baylor improved to 41-20 and advanced to Sunday�s 1 p.m. championship game with Texas. The third-seeded Longhorns used a seven-run third inning to cruise to a 12-4 win over No. 2 seed Texas A&M in Saturday night�s earlier game.

Despite McCormack�s bat-silencing performance, the Huskers scratched across single runs in the first and second innings to take a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the third inning. But Baylor erupted for four runs, capped by Mark Saccamanno�s three-run homer to left to chase NU starter Phil Shirek. The sophomore right-hander dropped to 5-2, allowing five earned runs on five hits in 2.1 innings. The Bears added a lone run in the bottom of the sixth to claim their second victory of the day against the Huskers.

The Huskers did get a solid 3.2 innings of relief from senior left-hander Jamie Rodrigue, who returned to the mound for the first time since undergoing surgery on his left knee to allow just one run on four hits while striking out six in his first appearance since April 30.

Overall on Saturday, Nebraska�s bullpen allowed just three runs on nine hits in 16 innings of work against the Bears. But the Husker bats were not able to produce enough runs to make the quality relief work stand up, as NU managed just three hits in the final 14.1 innings against the Bears.

Notes: Nebraska has now scored in 326 consecutive games, tying Florida State for the fourth-longest streak in NCAA history�Jamie Rodrigue made his first appearance since having arthroscopic surgery on May 1�Phil Shirek�s three walks ties a career high�With his six strikeouts, Rodrigue moved into sole possession of sixth place on NU�s career strikeout list, passing Cliff Faust, who had 191 strikeouts from 1977 to 1980�Rodrigue now has 196 career strikeouts

Source: University of Nebraska Athletic Dept.