For the first 30 or so games of the 2025 softball season, Nebraska coach Rhonda Revelle checked in with Jordy Bahl to monitor her stamina each time the Huskers played.
Twice a national champion and a former first-team All-America pitcher at Oklahoma, Bahl had not attempted to hit at the collegiate level until this year. And she was returning this spring from a year on the bench to mend from a knee injury that required surgery after the season opener in 2024.
Revelle sat Bahl for one game early in the season to manage her workload. The former Gatorade National Player of the Year out of Papillion, Neb., paced in the dugout for the entire game.
She didn’t get much rest.
The formula to keep her fresh during her junior season, Revelle said, involved belief. The coach trusted that Bahl, who matured in that redshirt season a year ago, could track her endurance and strength without constant check-ins.
“She has one motor,” Revelle said. “But one thing she has learned as she’s gotten older is how to idle the motor a little bit. The motor’s still running. As we’ve come down the stretch, you can almost see her being very calculated: ‘What does this mean for me?’
“She’s answered the call. And I don’t think she’s ever held back. She understands the mission.”
The mission for Bahl and No. 19 Nebraska takes them to West Lafayette, Ind., for the Big Ten tournament and a quarterfinal game on Thursday against Penn State. The Huskers tied UCLA for second place in the Big Ten behind Oregon and will fight for an outside shot to host an NCAA Regional next week.
Bahl is a top candidate for national player of the year. She ranks in the top 15 in 13 statistical categories. Her .467 batting average puts her on pace to break a school record. She’s hit 19 home runs with a 1.524 OPS.
In the circle, she’s 22-5 with a 1.46 ERA and 234 strikeouts in 163 1/3 innings.
Her first full season at Nebraska has more than lived up to expectations.
“It has exceeded them,” she said.
The realization came not after a home run or a pitching win — Bahl needs one more homer to become the fourth 20-20 player in NCAA history — but after the Huskers beat Maryland on Saturday.
Bahl pitched Friday and Sunday against the Terps, allowing no runs on one hit to earn Big Ten pitcher of the week honors for the fifth time. She homered twice in the series, which drew 7,929 fans over three games. Bahl returned to the field after the middle game of the series with her two dogs to soak in what she had experienced.
A crowd of 3,021 watched the Huskers win 9-2, the first sellout in the history of Nebraska’s Bowlin Stadium.
