Onward to Knoxville.

And when you have Jordy Bahl on the trip, you’ll take your chances. Find a good seat on that plane for Ava Kuszak too. And Samantha Bland. OK, it was a dominating weekend by all involved. 

Nebraska punched its ticket to the best-of-3 Super Regionals next week against Tennessee by taking out Southeastern Louisiana 8-0 in six innings on Sunday. It marked three ‘run rule’ victories over three days. Not a bad little weekend in Baton Rouge.

Rhonda Revelle’s program will be making their first appearance in the Super Regionals in 11 years.

“You can get your adrenaline pumping in all the things that competitors do when it’s time to play, but there’s a real peace in knowing that every day this team has invested in themselves,” Revelle said.

Bahl allowed just one hit in her six innings pitched while also going 2-for-2 at the plate, including a leadoff home run in the first inning. At that point she had hit four home runs in her four official at-bats at this regional.

She added a lowly single to her stat line later. Sarcasm implied. Although it was a surprise when the ball didn’t go over the fence off her bat for once.

“I’ve said this all along when we people asked me questions about Jordy … I just am not surprised. I never would say, ‘Oh, I think she’s going to do this, this and this.’ But when she does do this, this and this it never surprises me. Because what is so cool about her, a lot of athletes could learn so much from her. She immerses herself in the moment. She’s not focused on numbers, accolades. She’s focused on one mission and it’s … doing whatever she can to help the team win. And she’s just talented enough that she can do a lot of things to help the team win.”

Kuszak did her own damage to the Lions, including a game-winning single in the sixth inning with the bases loaded to stop the game from going the full seven innings. Bland also had four RBI with three hits, including a double in the second inning to add two runs to the two NU had in the first. Her single in the fourth inning also brought in one of three runs that frame as NU moved to a comfortable 7-0 lead before putting the game to bed in the sixth.

Nebraska had beaten Southeastern Louisiana 14-1 in five innings on Saturday and took down UConn 10-2 in six on Friday.

Because of those stress-free games, Bahl was needed for only six innings of pitching the first two days. So she was fresh on Sunday and looked it. Bahl retired the first 13 batters before the Lions picked up a single for their only base runner of the day. NU’s star two-way player finished with 10 strikeouts.

Now the Huskers take on No. 7 Tennessee, which dispatched of the Big Ten’s Ohio State 5-0 on Sunday.

It was a long time ago but Nebraska did play the Volunteers in the first game of the season, with the Huskers winning 7-1.

The stakes are much higher this time. It’s a best-of-3 to go to the Women’s College World Series.

“I would say the postseason, it’s a grind. At the very beginning of the regional it seems like you’re so far away from the World Series and then three days later there’s only 16 teams left,” said Bahl, who was on two national championship teams at Oklahoma. “On our journey we have one goal. It’s not to make it to regionals or make it to Supers or make it to the World Series, it’s to win the World Series.

“So it’s a blessing to be able to win a regional with this team, but we know the work isn’t done and we’re just blessed to have the opportunity to go to Knoxville.”

Postgame notes courtesy of Paige Trutna of Nebraska Communications:

The Huskers’ 2025 regional title is the ninth in program history.

NU now has 100 doubles on the season, along with its 106 home runs. The 2025 Huskers are the 11th team in history with 100+ doubles and 100+ homers in the same season.
With her solo homer in the first inning, Jordyn Bahl put her season home run total at 23, which is a new program record. The previous record of 22 was set by Ali Viola in 1998.

Bahl also stands at 69 runs this season, which is a school record. Bahl’s mark beat the previous record of 66 set by Kiki Stokes in 2015.

Bahl hit four home runs in three games during the regional round. The last time a Husker hit 4+ homers in a regional was Hailey Decker in 2014.

Bahl notched 10 strikeouts on the day for her 10th double-digit strikeout game of the season.

In the Baton Rouge Regional, Bahl went 5-for-5 with four home runs, seven walks, eight runs and seven RBIs at the plate, while going 2-0 in the circle, allowing just one run and two hits in 12.0 innings with 16 strikeouts.

Nebraska has had 17 innings this season with multiple home runs after hitting two homers in the first inning.

NU had six run-rule victories in its NCAA tournament history entering this weekend. The Big Red run-ruled its opponent in all three games this weekend.

Ava Kuszak extended her hit streak to 14 games with her first-inning home run.

Nebraska has 26 run-rule wins on the season, which is the most in school history.

What an emotional roller-coaster for Liberty softball in the first of two games in the Regional Final in College Station against the No. 1 overall seed Texas A&M. The Flames lost, 14-11, in eight innings, forcing a winner-take-all game seven of this regional later Sunday night with first pitch scheduled for 8:10 p.m. ET.

The Lady Flames struck first as Savannah Woodard led off the bottom of the first with a home run. After Rachel Roupe helped eliminate a Texas A&M threat in the second as she gunned out a runner at home from trying to score from third on a fly ball to right field. Liberty would add to its lead with five runs in the second, taking a massive 6-0 lead. The inning was highlighted by Roupe’s 21st home run of the season, a grand slam.

As expected the Aggies would start chipping away at the Liberty lead, adding one in the third with an RBI single. The host team would explode for six runs in the fourth to take their first lead of the game at 7-6. Liberty had two errors in the inning, a sign of things to come throughout the game, while A&M blasted two home runs and scored four of their runs with two outs.

The Aggies would continue to pile on, looking like they would win going away, adding three more runs in the fifth, pushing their advantage to 10-6. Roupe’s defensive heroics would again come up big for the Flames, helping to limit the damage as she doubled the runner off first after securing a fly out to end the threat.

Brynn McManus missed a three-run home run by just inches as her ball in the bottom of the sixth hit off the wall, it did score one run as Liberty cut the deficit to three. The Aggies made it 11-7 scoring one in the top of the seventh, in part due to another Liberty error.

Entering the bottom of the seventh, the Lady Flames trailed by four and looked destined to be headed to another game against Texas A&M. But the two-time defending CUSA champions would not go down quietly. The first two hitters in the inning singled before Alexia Carrasquillo would pinch-hit and have an RBI single off the outfield wall, scoring one run. Savannah Whatley followed with an RBI single, cutting the deficit to two at 11-9. Woodard then grounded out moving the runners to second and third as Rachel Roupe stepped to the plate.

Roupe singled back up the middle, scoring a run to make it 11-10. McManus would walk to load the bases before Alyssa Henault was hit by a pitch to tie the contest. KK Madrey, with the bases loaded, battled to a full count before flying out to left field, ending the Liberty threat and sending the game to extra innings.

In the top of the eighth, the Aggies took advantage of a sixth Liberty error on what should have been the second out of the inning. Texas A&M would plate three runs in the inning before retiring Liberty in order to end the game and force a winner-take-all game seven.

Elena Escobar pitched 3.2 innings, allowing seven runs on 11 hits. Paige Bachman drew the loss, allowing seven runs, three of them earned, on seven hits in 4.1 innings of relief.

After Liberty chased the first two Texas A&M pitchers in the second, Kate Munnerlyn was strong in relief. She ended up allowing five runs on eight hits in five innings, with most of that damage coming in the sixth and seventh innings.

*photo courtesy Liberty Athletics