Double black diamond
Excellent seasons for Nebraska softball and baseball came to an end within hours of each other Saturday, but it's all about how you look at it.
The margins are so thin, even when you’re maybe the best player in the game.
Playing a win-or-the-end game against 2-seed Texas at the Women’s College World Series Sunday, here’s all Jordy Frahm did for No. 4 Nebraska. She led off the game with a solo home run. Then she made the 1-0 lead she created stick by taking the circle and no-hitting Texas for 5 innings. She wasn’t doing it alone, of course, but this was Frahm’s game.
Even though we’ve come to expect this from her, it was still ridiculous to watch the standard being met yet again. A former Sooner who became one of the greatest Huskers over two seasons was delivering an emphatic Horns Down.
Frahm coaxed a groundout to start the 6th and got to a 3-2 count on the next batter. Jaycie Nichols drilled a hard grounder deep in the hole at short for an infield single. Back at the top of the order, Frahm got the important first strike on the next at bat, but Kayden Henry slapped a single to right field to put runners at first and second. Frahm got the advantage again with a first-pitch strike to Katie Stewart. Hard grounder to second or short and the Huskers could be out of this.
Instead, a riseball needed to rise maybe a few centimeters more. Where it was, Stewart smoked it for a 250-foot, three-run home run. They were the only three hits and runs Texas would need.
“As a pitcher you put in a ton of work to execute the perfect pitch every single time, and that just doesn’t happen, unfortunately,” Frahm said.
What often strikes me in moments exactly like this is that the players and coaches involved are often the only ones who truly understand this. You have to live it to truly get it, maybe. Doesn’t make it easy. Imagine knowing—truly knowing—that a few centimeters more may have been all it was? Compared to some of the other aces at the WCWS, Frahm isn’t the biggest pitcher, generating more velocity through simple physics. She doesn’t throw the fastest. You could argue she was who she was as a college player because she could execute the perfect pitch more often than some others who had better physical tools.
But you can’t do it every time. “That just doesn’t happen, unfortunately.”
Nebraska baseball also had its season end Sunday. While the stakes were slightly lower, they were still plenty high. The Huskers earned the right to host a Regional for the first time since 2008, achieving a program goal Will Bolt set after being hired.
The Huskers got the home games, but they also got Ole Miss and Arizona State, two traditional college baseball powers that just happen to mash the ball in 2026.
For the first 14 innings of NU’s regional, Bolt looked like a maestro. He made the much-debated1 decision to start Nebraska’s ace, Carson Jasa, in the Friday opener against South Dakota State, a surprise tournament team with a losing record. It looked like the right call as the Huskers ground out a 4-1 win, using only Jasa and closer J’Shawn Unger.
Bolt’s decision to play the early game Friday looked prescient when Mississippi and Arizona State went 14 innings in the nightcap. The Rebels, 7-6 winners, would have a shorter turnaround in the winner’s bracket Saturday, but Nebraska was going to need something special from day-two starter Ty Horn against this Ole Miss lineup.
It got it. Horn, 3-2 entering the game, struck out nine through 5.2 innings, including two of the first three batters in the 6th. With Nebraska leading 1-0, Horn was ahead in the count 0-2 on Hayden Federico. One more pitch, and the Huskers would be out of this.
Federico singled. A double on the next at bat put Ole Miss ahead 2-1—Horn’s brilliant day was done—and they’d push three across in the inning. Nebraska loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the 6th but couldn’t claw anything back. The game was suspended in the top of the 9th due to weather with Mississippi up 6-3, and a 13-hour reset period wasn’t the magic ingredient for a win.
A few hours after losing to Ole Miss, Nebraska’s season ended with an 11-8 loss to Arizona State. The Sun Devils led the game 11-1 entering the top of the 7th, so at least the Huskers went down swinging.
Maybe Nebraska baseball and softball were capable of more than having their seasons—great seasons—end on the same day. You could make that argument with some decent evidence that is readily available.
Maybe they were only a pitch away from that “more.” You could also make that argument.2 The margins are so thin, particularly the higher you go.
At least externally.
Having done this for a decent stretch now, I’d describe this POV as my default position carrying extraordinary evidence to the contrary. I’m not sure this makes me a very good sportswriter for today’s age, but it is the sportswriter I want to be.