Nebraska goes to the North Carolina Regional, in Chapel Hill, with 22 players from last season’s team, which went to the Oklahoma State Regional.
A 23rd, pitcher Mason McConnaughey, has been lost for the season.
“It speaks to the veteran presence in the clubhouse, and they’ve been through the ups and downs, particularly the guys that have been here for four years, just staying the course and just really refusing to give in,” Coach Will Bolt said during Monday’s media availability.
“You’ve got to have that in the clubhouse, the want-to and then the leadership to show up to practice and stay process-driven when it’s hard to do that.”
Pitcher Drew Christo is among four seniors who came to Nebraska out of high school. The others are outfielder Gabe Swansen and pitchers Jackson Brockett and Will Walsh, a two-way player in 2024.
Swansen made the All-Stillwater Regional Team.
Although the Huskers went 1-2, players “know what to expect (and are) a little bit more locked in and dialed in to what it needs to look like when you go to one of these regionals,” said Drew Christo.
They’ve also come together in the way Bolt has asked of them.
“I think you can look back at the last month, month and a half, two months, and I think we really started to play complementary baseball,” Christo said. “We’ve talked about that a lot this season as a group, and I think we’ve really figured out what that means for us.
“The offense can go out and score. It’s the pitchers’ job to go hang zeroes, and if they get off to a slow start, then it’s our job to hold ‘em and let our offense score first. We’re figuring that piece out.”
Top seed and host North Carolina, 42-12 and ranked second nationally* by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), opens against Patriot League champion and fourth-seeded Holy Cross (31-25) Friday at 11 a.m. CDT. Nebraska plays second-seeded Oklahoma (35-20) at 4 p.m.
The Huskers and Sooners, former Big Eight and Big 12 rivals, have played 250 times.
Nebraska pitching will face an Oklahoma team hitting .274, led by catcher Easton Carmichael, who’s hitting .321 with 14 home runs and 55 runs-batted-in.
The Sooners’ top starting pitcher, junior right-hander Kyson Witherspoon, is 10-3 with a 2.47 earned-run-average. Witherspoon has struck out 120 in 91 innings, with only 20 walks. He ranks sixth nationally in strikeouts and is tied for 13th nationally in strikeouts-to-walks ratio, 6.00.
However, Witherspoon’s twin brother, right-hander Malachi (3-8, 5.53), is slated to start Friday’s game, against Nebraska’s Jackson Brockett (4-3, 3.41). Oklahoma will send out Kyson in its second game.
North Carolina grad-student right-hander Jake Knapp is the pitcher with whom Witherspoon is tied. Knapp is 12-0 with a 2.17 ERA and 78 strikeouts to 13 walks in 87 innings. North Carolina ranks fourth nationally in team ERA, 3.42, with opponents hitting only .223. The Tar Heels rank ninth nationally in hits allowed per nine innings, 7.48. By comparison, Nebraska ranks 68th, 8.95.
North Carolina is hitting .286 as a team, led by shortstop Alex Madera, .332, and first baseman Hunter Stokely, .322 and among four Tar Heels with 52 or more RBIs. Stokely has 55, with 13 home runs.
Holy Cross is hitting .285 as a team, led by first baseman Chris Baillargeon, .386 with three home runs and a team-high 52 RBIs. Infielder Jimmy King is hitting .335 with a home run and 41 RBIs. Danny Macchiarcia and Jaden Wywoda are the top Crusader starting pitchers; Macchiarcia is 9-2 with a 3.04 ERA, Wywoda 9-2, 3.65. Both are junior right-handers.
But enough of numbers. Back to Bolt’s acknowledging the importance of veteran leadership and its encouraging buy-in, which “is ‘Let’s try to take the emotion out of it the best we can and let’s just take each day for what it is and go attack it,’” he said.
How does Nebraska maintain the momentum of winning the Big Ten Tournament and five of its last conference series?
“Well, it starts on the mound … I’ve said that throughout the course of the year,” Bolt said. “Your momentum is as good as your next day’s starting pitcher … setting the tone, and everybody kind of plays complementary baseball off your starting pitcher.
“And so, that was obviously a big piece of the puzzle in that tournament.”
Christo thinks the Huskers, 32-27, can do what Bolt expects.
“I think for us, no matter what the scenario is going to be, we’re going to be focused in on us,” he said. “And I think that’s something that no matter where you’re at, where you’re playing and who you’re playing, it’s going to give you the advantage when you can keep all the attention and focus on yourselves.”
*Nebraska and Oklahoma were among others receiving votes in the poll.
