AUSTIN, Texas — It’s always the option of last choice, but failing to embrace it can make a weekend a complete waste.

Texas’ 10th-ranked baseball team salvaged this one with a better-late-than-never effort to beat No. 15 Nebraska 12-3 at Disch-Falk Field on Sunday afternoon to avoid being swept in a three-game home series for the first time since 1996.

With the aid of an error, Texas answered a first-inning run by the Huskers to score three in the bottom half, then, thanks to another error, get three more in the third to give Riley Boening more than enough breathing room.

The left-handed junior would give his teammates a much-needed quality and season-long outing that took him into the seventh.

“I thought that was connected to a survivor instinct that our team showed, the thing you see all the time when you see the third game played and the team’s lost (the first two),” said Longhorns coach Augie Garrido, who was at Cal State Fullerton in 1996 when the Titans came to Austin and swept Texas. “There’s a survivor instinct in there that teams have.

“Whenever you give up runs, especially the way we play and what’s happened to us, and then you get three runs back, you kind of go ‘Aw.’ There’s a little bit of a renewed hope there. And then when you get three more two innings later and give your guy a five-run lead, for me there’s never anything better for a pitcher’s curveball than a five-run lead.”

Boening would leave after giving up a two-run homer to Cody Neer that drew Nebraska to 6-3 with one out in the seventh. But the Longhorns (18-8, 5-4) answered with two runs in the bottom half before putting the game completely out of reach by scoring four more in the eighth. During that outburst, Kevin Keyes became the 37th player in the 33-year history of Disch-Falk to homer over the 20-foot high batter’s eye wall that towers behind center field.

That blast came off Mike Nesseth, but before he got to the mound the Longhorns had touched Aaron Pribanic for seven hits and six runs over six innings to leave a Nebraska starting pitcher with a loss for the first time since opening day.

Pribanic hurt his cause in the first by making a wild throw to third after fielding a bunt by Jordan Danks that let Michael Torres and Travis Tucker score.

In the third, a one-out fielding error by shortstop Ben Kline, who was rushing to try and turn a double play, led to a two-run double by David Hernandez and sacrifice fly by Torres.

“I think our mistakes were (because) we were trying to do a little too much,” NU coach Mike Anderson said. “We put them in positions that were pretty good offensively.

“Let’s say the first couple innings (Pribanic) bounces out of that and we don’t make some of those mistakes. Now, Aaron probably has a little bit more of a chance to settle in and keep going. But, obviously, that’s the best-hitting team in the conference.”

Pribanic wasn’t quite ready to put that tag on the Longhorns, but he did leave Austin impressed after watching them rack up 14 hits.

“They’re a really good hitting team and you’ve got to be sharp,” he said. “… but I couldn’t really do more than I was doing. I was making pitches and getting ground balls, (that were) just getting through holes.”

Sunday’s result left Nebraska at 21-4-1 overall. With Missouri losing to Texas Tech Sunday, the Huskers, who won 14-4 on Friday and 2-0 on Saturday, remained atop the Big 12 Conference standings at 7-1-1. NU returns to action with a 6:30 p.m. Tuesday game against Creighton in Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium.

“It’s one of those things that we’re walking out of here feeling very fortunate,” Nebraska third baseman Jake Mort said. “Texas is a really, really good ball club, and we played really well Friday and Saturday.

“I guess you look at today as just a learning thing. Fortunately, we won both Friday and Saturday. Otherwise, we’d be in a different scenario.”

Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.