A two-run home run off senior shortstop Ava Kuszak’s bat in the bottom of the 10th inning proved to be the difference in the No. 1 Nebraska softball team’s first game of the 2026 Women’s College World Series.
No. 1 Nebraska (52-6, 23-1 Big Ten) defeated 10th-ranked Arkansas 5-3 in extra innings at Devon Park in Oklahoma City Friday night.
“It felt good off the bat, but I wasn’t sure, and then I just threw my hands up hoping it was going out,” Kuszak said of her reaction to her home run. ” I think the tears started coming around third, just seeing all these girls just absolutely screaming. I was like, there’s just no way that just happened.”
Kuszak was 0-4 before her final at bat. She said it’s all about making changes.
“I feel like just in practice, even if it doesn’t go well, you keep growing, and you keep fighting and just keep making adjustments,” Kuszak said. “Even just after every at-bat, I was learning. I just had to keep telling myself, I’m learning, I’m learning, and just focus on my team and what needed to be done and then continue to go on and just adjust.”
The Huskers did just that, matching the Razorbacks every time they scored. Arkansas scored two runs in the top of the second, and Nebraska put up two in the bottom of the fourth.
They tied it up again in the eighth with both teams scoring a run before the Big Red took the lead for good in the bottom of the 10th.
The Huskers extended their winning streak to 27 and got their first walk-off win of the year. Nebraska also won its first WCWS game since 2002.
“We’re so razor-thin in the margins when you look at our statistics,” head coach Rhonda Revelle said. “It was going to be one team made one more execution, and that’s exactly how it played out.”
Nebraska relied on its star senior pitcher Jordy Frahm, and she didn’t disappoint. Frahm is now 21-4 in the circle. She threw 133 pitches across 10 innings, allowing eight hits and three runs. The Papillion native also struck out nine and walked one.
“It was a long game, especially towards the end,” Frahm said. “It just became a matter of being in control of everything that I could be in control of. This team is insane. Literally, it could be anybody on any given day. Everybody in our lineup is made for the moment.”
After giving up a two-run home run in the second inning, Revelle said she never considered taking Frahm out of the game.
“What you see is what you get every day,” Revelle said. “So, her consistency is contagious, her consistency is inspiring, because it’s not just consistency, it’s consistency and performing at an elite level consistently.”
Nebraska has a day off and will be back on the field on Saturday in the driver’s seat at the WCWS.
“We don’t really focus on how much we’ve won or how much we’ve lost, but every day is a new day, every inning’s a new inning, every pitch is a new pitch, so simplifying it as much as possible,” Frahm said. “I think the simpler you can make the game, the slower it becomes, and the more that you realize you’re in control of, so just doing our best to control that.”
Nebraska will play No. 3 Alabama in the winners’ bracket on Saturday. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. CT on ESPN and the Huskers Radio Network.
