LINCOLN, Neb. — 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.

Nothing like reflecting at the end of a special day. Thank you to the 3,021 fans who completely filled this place for the first time ever. Thank you to all of the alumni in attendance who built Nebraska softball. Let’s celebrate some rock solid human beings and seniors tomorrow😊 pic.twitter.com/J15az9FGSf

— Jordyn Bahl (@jordybahl) May 4, 2025

“It was absolutely incredible, and it was everything that I dreamed about when I was a little girl, growing up in this state going to these games,” she said. “To see it actually happening, it’s hard to wrap your mind around. But it’s happening. And it’s so exciting. And it’s making dreams come true.”

Bahl committed to Nebraska before her freshman year of high school in 2017. She flipped to Oklahoma because she thought it offered all that she wanted.

After winning two national championships, she still felt unfulfilled. Bahl was named the most outstanding player at the 2023 Women’s College World Series. She entered the transfer portal less than a week later.

There was only one possible destination.

On Sunday in Lincoln, as Nebraska honored four seniors in the last regular-season home game of 2025, Bahl worked four hitless innings and led off the bottom of the first with an opposite-field home run. Replicas of her No. 98 jersey dotted the bleachers on a sun-drenched afternoon.

A group of girls who play softball in Elgin, Neb., watched her intently from the right field berm.

Bahl is on track to become the first player nationally since 2017 to score more runs than she’s allowed while pitching 130 innings or more.

“She’s really helped recalibrate the standard for Nebraska softball — from practice to what we do in the weight room to just overall focus,” Revelle said. “There’s not a part of our program that she hasn’t impacted.”

Without her last year, Nebraska finished 30-23 and missed the postseason. It is 38-12 this season, with help from six first-year transfers. Shortstop Ava Kuszak, a transfer from Wisconsin, has matched Bahl’s 19 homers.

But it is Bahl, according to Revelle, who serves as the “competitive lighthouse” for Nebraska.

“Everybody knows what she’s capable of,” the coach said. “And it starts with her. She knows what she’s capable of.”

Said catcher Ava Bredwell: “Our lineup feeds off of her energy.”

Nebraska is 1-5 against ranked opponents this season. Bahl did not pitch in a 9-1 loss against UCLA or a loss against Southern Miss, both in February.

“Any time she takes the mound, we feel like we have a shot to win,” Revelle said.

The intensity at this time of year rises. Bahl knows the feeling.

“It’s always a lot more fun playing the game when you feel like your back’s against the wall and your season’s on the line,” she said.

Welcome to the postseason. The Huskers are ready to follow Bahl’s lead.

(Photo courtesy of Nebraska Athletics)