Aggies fail to lock up Big 12 baseball title
By DALLAS SHIPP
Special to The Eagle

LINCOLN, Neb. -- The Texas A&M baseball team needed just one win in Sunday's doubleheader against Nebraska to lock up its first regular season Big 12 championship since 1999.

But the fifth-ranked Aggies blew a four-run, ninth-inning lead in the first game and a five-run lead in the second, falling 9-8 and 13-10 in front of 7,653 fans at Haymarket Park.

The Aggies (42-10, 19-5 Big 12) scored four runs in the top of the sixth in the second game, capped by a three-run home run by Jose Duran, to take a 9-4 lead. But the seventh-ranked Cornhuskers (38-9-1, 17-6-1) scored three runs in each of the next three frames, thanks in large part to six errors, a wild pitch and a passed ball, to take a 13-10 lead into the ninth.

The Aggies tried to mount a comeback, getting runners on first and second with two outs in the top of the ninth. But Huskers reliever Mike Nesseth forced Kyle Colligan to pop out to the shortstop to complete the Huskers' second come-from-behind victory of the day.

"We didn't do anything to deserve to win today. It's about executing a routine [defensive play and throwing strikes] and we certainly didn't do that," A&M coach Rob Childress said. "You've got to give Nebraska credit. They came and took Game 1 in the ninth, scoring five runs. I'm proud of the way we responded in Game 2, but we still didn't execute."

Nebraska ended A&M's 16-game Big 12 winning streak, a conference record, and moved to within 1 1/2 games of the Aggies with three league games remaining. The teams played a doubleheader because of rain out on Saturday.

What compounded the heartbreak for the Aggies' in Game 2 was the way they lost the first one.

A&M carried an 8-4 lead into the bottom of the ninth and had Kyle Thebeau, the Big 12's ERA leader, on the mound. But two infield errors allowed the Cornhuskers to score five runs, three of which were unearned, and steal the win. Nebraska had just two hits in the decisive inning.

The Aggies racked up 12 errors in the three-game series after committing just 18 errors in their first 21 Big 12 games.

The loss in Game 1 ended the Aggies' 31-game win streak when leading after eight innings, a run that dated back to a June 8 loss to Rice in the first game of the Super Regional last season. But Childress believes his team will learn from the experience.

"I saw a lot of toughness out of our group today," Childress said. "We'll pick ourselves up and we'll get better and learn from this and we're looking forward to getting back on the field on Tuesday."