Grand slam ends NU's chances

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It was only one inning, but the Nebraska baseball team suffered a whole game's worth of damage by the time it was over.

A sixth-inning grand slam by Josh Ford capped off Baylor's 9-4 win over No. 23 Nebraska Sunday in Waco, Texas.

After trailing 3-2 heading into the sixth, the Bears (26-25, 13-9 Big 12) tallied six consecutive hits off of NU's Brett Jensen, including Ford's homer, to help Baylor take the lead and complete the series sweep.

The loss marks the first time since 2000, which oddly enough came against Baylor, that Nebraska had been swept in a conference series.

Jensen, who had retired 11 straight batters prior to the sixth-inning meltdown, took the loss for the Huskers (33-19, 10-14).

"We pitched one bad inning all weekend and that came back and hurt us today," NUcoach Mike Anderson said. "The grand slam was a tough pitch to swallow."

The Bears took an early lead off NU starter Dustin Timm in the bottom of the second on an RBI double by Drew Sutton and a sacrifice fly by Ford.

Timm only lasted 11/3 innings before being replaced by Jensen.

The Husker bats finally came alive in the fourth, as Alex Gordon followed a single by Joe Simokaitis with a two-run homer to center to tie the game.

Gordon's blast was his 17th of the season and marked the first homer allowed by Baylor pitcher Mark McCormick this season.

Nebraska took a 3-2 lead in the same inning as Curtis Ledbetter doubled and came around on an RBI-single by Colin Shockey.

But after the Bears' blistering sixth inning and a solo homer by Reid Brees in the seventh, the Huskers couldn't muster up a second comeback.

John Grose added an RBI-single in the eighth to round out the game's scoring.

"Overall, we pitched well enough to win all three games this weekend," Anderson said. "We played well enough defensively but our offense was out of sync. We aren't the getting the results we're looking for offensively to win on the road. We must put a complete game together. And we didn't do that this weekend."

Nebraska will continue its four-game road trip Tuesday against Creighton at Rosenblatt Stadium at 7 p.m., which will be shown on NETV (channel 12).