May 16, 2003
Box Score
LINCOLN, Neb. - Nebraska starter Aaron Marsden cooled down the Bears' offense Friday night, leading No. 8 Nebraska to a 6-2 win. No. 14 Baylor saw its eight-game win streak come to a screeching halt in the Bears' first game at Hawks Field.
Marsden (7-2) struck out a career-high 12 batters and limited Baylor (36-18, 14-11 Big 12) to just two runs on six hits. The lefty went the distance, striking out 10 or more batters for the fifth time this season. Even more impressively, he held both Chris Durbin and David Murphy hitless, the first time both Bears have gone without a hit in the same game this season.
Josh Ford's solo home run in the first inning gave the Bears a brief 1-0 lead, but Nebraska (41-13, 19-6 Big 12) scored twice in the bottom of the first and did not trail again. Starter Steven White (6-4) walked the first two batters of the game, and Husker third baseman Alex Gordon brought both runners home with a two-out single for a 2-1 Nebraska lead.
White cruised through the next seven of the next eight batters after escaping the first, but ran into trouble in the fourth. Three singles and two hit batters amounted to three more runs, with Jeff Leise's two-out single bringing home two of the three runs.
Paul Witt recorded his third home run of the year in the fifth inning, lining a shot down the left-field line to cut the Huskers' lead to 5-2, but Matt Hopper led off the bottom of the fifth with a double and scored on a two-out single by Daniel Bruce for Nebraska's sixth run.
White finished the game as the tough-luck loser. The senior picked up his second complete game of the season, lasting eight innings. White struck out four and walked only the first two batters of the game.
Durbin and Murphy combined to go 0-for-8 with three strikeouts. Murphy struck out twice in one game for just the second time this season and saw his 21-game hitting streak come to an end. The streak concludes tied for fourth-best in recent school history. The longest active streaks on the team are now eight-game streaks by Mark Saccomanno and Kyle Reynolds.
No Bear recorded more than one hit in the game. Baylor, who came into the game leading the Big 12 and among the top 10 in the nation in team batting average, was held to its lowest totals for runs and hits in six weeks.
The two teams square off again Saturday at 2:05 p.m., then wrap up the series Sunday at 1:05 p.m. Saturday's game will be televised by Nebraska ETV and College Sports TV; the broadcast will be carried in Waco on Time Warner Cable Channel 16.
