Angelo Altavilla hit a pair of home runs, Matt Waldron delivered his second consecutive strong start, and the Nebraska baseball team rolled past Baylor 12-4 Friday night in Waco, Texas.
Nebraska (5-6), one of just 25 Division I teams out of 297 nationally without a home run this season coming into the game, hit three Friday, with two coming in the first inning off the bats of Altavilla and Luke Roskam.
"We got some pitches up in the zone, and they helped fill in the pieces with some free passes and hit-by-pitches and a couple errors, but we did what we needed to do at the plate," Nebraska coach Darin Erstad said on the Husker Sports Network. "When a team gives you free bases like that, you have to take advantage, and our boys were ready to play tonight."
That staked the Huskers to a 4-0 lead, and gave Waldron more than enough cushion to work with.
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Facing a top-20 offense nationally for the second time in a week, Waldron, a senior from Omaha Westside, struck out a career-high eight and walked none while allowing two runs on seven hits in seven innings of work. He improved to 2-0, with the victories over No. 3 Texas Tech and the No. 21 Bears.
Just one of the two runs was earned. Baylor (9-3) came into the game fourth in the country in batting average and 20th in runs per game. According to the Nebraska radio broadcast, Waldron didn't reach a three-ball count all night.
On the season, Waldron now has 26 strikeouts against just two walks.
"Just like last weekend, facing a thunderous offense — these guys can really hit, and they've put up just stupid numbers in this park so far this year, and he was able to get to the spots that we wanted to," Erstad said of Waldron. "Just tremendous execution on his part."
In the opener of a series originally scheduled to be played at Haymarket Park before moving because of weather, Nebraska was never seriously challenged by a Baylor lineup playing with most of its firepower from a 37-win team in 2018.
After Baylor scored a run in the bottom of the second, Nebraska extended the advantage to 7-2 in the fifth when Mojo Hagge walked, Aaron Palensky was hit by a pitch, Roskam delivered an RBI single to center and Joe Acker followed with a two-RBI double.
Roskam had a four-hit night, finishing 4-for-6 with four RBIs.
Altavilla had the second two-home run game of his career, finishing 2-for-5 with five RBIs. His second homer, a no-doubt three-run shot in the ninth, put NU up 12-2.
Nebraska scored two in the eighth thanks to an Aaron Palenska RBI triple and Roskam's RBI double.
The series continues Saturday with first pitch scheduled for 3 p.m.