Courtesy Photo — Nebraska Athletics
Nebraska baseball (33-29, 15-15) was crushed by Oklahoma (37-21, 14-16) to end its up-and-down season in the Chapel Hill regional. The Sooners were on the Huskers from the first pitch, resulting in a 17-1 loss.
“Today’s score and game is not indicative of how we rallied and played together the last two months of the season, especially when things were looking bleak and not a lot of belief outside the circle,” head coach Will Bolt said postgame. “But the belief inside the circle is what kept us together.”
Nebraska backtracked from its superb fielding in its 4-1 win over Holy Cross on Saturday. The Huskers accounted for three of their five defensive errors in the first inning alone, giving the Sooners an early 3-0 lead.
The momentum never left Oklahoma’s side. The Sooners smacked 18 hits — eight of which were extra-base. Whether it was jitters or not, this lackluster performance was not the fight Nebraska had shown in do-or-die situations over the past month.
“Disappointed for the guys how it ended today,” Bolt said. “And we didn’t give our best shot, but not certainly disappointed in anybody.”
Although the season-ending loss leaves a bad taste in the Big Red’s mouth, it was quite the run they went on. From being under .500 the majority of the season, finding a way to win the Big Ten Tournament, to making the NCAA regionals, Bolt and his team met adversity head-on.
“They’ll be champions for the rest of their lives — nobody can ever take that away from them,” Bolt said.
Although the future in Lincoln is bright with young guys like pitcher Ty Horn and slugger Devin Nunez returning, it’s never easy to say goodbye to key senior leaders such as Gabe Swansen, Joshua Overbeek, Jackson Brockett, Will Walsh and more.
“You have to have veteran leadership,” Bolt said, adding, “That’s what we had in the clubhouse this year with those guys — the guys that have been here four or five years, some of them a couple of years, but they just galvanized the group. And they kept them together — they bought into the message and the process. That’s all I can ask as a coach.”
Schneider is a sports journalist who analyzes Nebraska baseball and football. Follow him on X @bschneider33 for more coverage.