OKLAHOMA CITY — His 11th-ranked Texas A&M baseball team had squandered scoring chances in every inning against Nebraska during Wednesday’s Big 12 Conference Tournament opener.

In the first and second innings, the Aggies had two runners on with no outs against Tony Watson and couldn’t score. In the sixth, they’d gotten just one run from the same scenario.

Finally, Rob Childress saw an opportunity he thought would be fool-proof. His No. 3 hitter and the league’s second-best run producer, Blake Stouffer, was up with the bases loaded in the eighth. Stouffer  already 3-for-4 in the game.

What’s more, he worked the count to 3-0.

“If you ask me who I wanted at the plate in that situation, there’s only one guy,” said Childress, a former NU pitching coach. “He’s done it for us all year long.”

Not this time.

Nebraska’s Matt Foust, after throwing a strike, got Stouffer to swing and miss the next two pitches to preserve a 4-3 lead, and the Huskers went to a 5-3 victory before 5,017 fans in Bricktown Ballpark.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever done that,” said Foust, who pumped his fists and shouted while coming off the mound following the eighth. “It’s exciting.”

The win gave fourth-seeded Nebraska (30-23) a 24-5 all-time record in Bricktown entering today’s 7:30 p.m. game against eighth-seeded Kansas State. NU, seeking to advance to its sixth championship game in seven appearances here, concludes pool play against regular-season champion and fifth-ranked Texas at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Wednesday, the Huskers definitely played championship-caliber ball. They were perfect in the field, and more.

In the fifth inning, after Stouffer drove in a run with a single, left fielder Andy Gerch threw him out trying to go for second.

In the sixth, with two outs and a runner at third, catcher Mitch Abeita saved a run by snaring a pitch Foust had sailed well off the plate. Foust then struck out Parker Dalton.

“We played a good, clean game,” coach Mike Anderson said. “We held them in check — I don’t think that’s the way they usually are. A three- or four-run inning is not uncommon.”

Nebraska also got a lot of mileage from an offense that produced just eight hits. NU got three runs off sacrifice flies (the most it’s had in a game this season), and also had two sacrifices, five walks and two hit batters.

Junior third baseman Craig Corriston, playing in his first Big 12 tourney, figured into each of NU’s first four runs.

He was hit by a pitch in the first, letting DJ Belfonte advance to second. Belfonte, who’d started the inning with a bunt single, scored on Gerch’s two-out single.

In the third, Corriston drew a leadoff walk before eventually scoring on Jake Opitz’s sac fly. He also led off the fifth with a single and came home on a sac fly by Gerch. And in the sixth, he hit a sac fly to score Bryce Nimmo.

“Early in this game I think set the tempo for the whole week — getting on base, moving guys over, executing, being efficient with the offense,” Corriston said.

Meanwhile, Watson — who 12 days earlier had allowed a career-high eight earned runs, and last Friday made his shortest outing (12/3 innings) in 33 career starts — gutted his way into the sixth.

Foust, who came in with runners on second and third, gave up a fielder’s choice RBI grounder before getting a strikeout.

In the seventh, he gave up two walks around a one-out single by Stouffer before giving up a sac fly. But Foust came back to get pinch-hitter Kirkland Rivers looking at a third strike.

Then came the big moment in the eighth. After getting two quick outs, Foust walked Dalton and gave up two infield singles.

Anderson then made a trip to talk to Foust.

“It was just a, ‘Calm down, you’re the guy,’” Foust said of the brief chat. “He told me, ‘I think you’re better out of the windup,’ but I guess I didn’t prove that until the last three pitches.”

After the Huskers got an insurance run in the bottom half of the inning courtesy of two balks, Foust pitched around a one-out single by Stinson by retiring the next two batters on fly outs to notch his seventh save.

“The older guys expect to win when they come down here, no matter what happened during the season,” Corriston said. “I think that rubs off on other guys that haven’t been here.”

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