HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) – Cal Higgins transferred to Texas this season, joining one of the premier teams in college baseball. His path to Omaha was a long one, starting back in high school.

Higgins didn’t start playing NSAA sanctioned baseball until his sophomore year, when Kearney added baseball as a sport. He helped the Bearcats make state in their first year as a program.

Iowa Western was the only school willing to give Higgins a chance. He played one season there before following his coaches to Western Kentucky.

At Western Kentucky, he was part of building a program’s foundation at the Division I level. His time as a Hilltopper culminated in 2025, where he appeared in 22 games and posted an ERA of 1.87, good for the 10th best in program history.

Higgins helped lead the Hilltoppers to their first conference title. His time with Western Kentucky ended in the regional round, losing to Ole Miss in a game he threw 2.2 shutout frames with five strikeouts.

“It was pretty beautiful. Definitely an awesome closing of that chapter. Just had a great group of guys that were just even more bought in than the previous years,” Higgins said. “I knew that there were more opportunities out there and I wanted to explore them, wanted to have the amazing experiences that I’ve had.”

Higgins entered the transfer portal to find the final home of his college career. When a program as rich in tradition as Texas came calling, it was a decision he made quickly.

He’s pitched 11.1 innings this year for a deep Longhorn team that’s raced out to a 45-13 record. The year is culminating in Omaha, with Higgins’ return to Nebraska as an athlete for the first time since 2021.

“It’s pretty full circle, pretty surreal. Touched down at Eppley and just got a watery eye, just looking over the state I grew up in, literally, and then literally flying over the state I played in for a year,” Higgins said. “That was pretty cool, just to be back home.”

The Longhorns take the field Saturday for their first game of the Men’s College World Series against an SEC foe, the Georgia Bulldogs. First pitch is set for 7 p.m. and it will be on ESPN.

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SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (KOLN) – A Nebraska woman faces 41 charges after dozens of dogs were rescued June 5 from her home in Scotts Bluff County.

The Scotts Bluff County Sheriff’s Office was called to a home east of Scottsbluff around 2 p.m. for a report of possible animal abuse. According to court records, a dog from the home had been seen on Highway 26.

When deputies arrived, they contacted the owner of the dogs, 75-year-old Jody Staman. While speaking with Staman outside the home, a deputy saw numerous small dogs in wire cages. Further investigation found some of the dogs did not have food or water, and several were breathing heavily and appeared stressed. Dogs that did have water had bowls filled with algae, vegetation and mud. The dirt floors were covered in dog feces.

Staman told deputies she used to sell the dogs but stopped around 2020. She said she originally had 30 dogs and one puppy.

Deputies later returned with assistance from Nebraska Game and Parks and members of the Panhandle Humane Society. Court records state 40 live dogs and one dead puppy were collected from the property. Another puppy, which was in poor health, was taken to the Wildflower Animal Cottage.

Deputies and PHS staff described the conditions as “deplorable,” with the residence covered in dog and rodent feces. In some areas, animal feces were more than one foot deep. In most areas, it was impossible to take a step without stepping in feces.

Staman was charged with 40 counts of cruel neglect of an animal and one count of cruel neglect of an animal resulting in death.

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Emma Bullerman is spending her summer riding around in fields with her dad, and she’s thrilled about it. It’s not just for fun, either — she’s interning for the Prairie Plains Resource Institute and working alongside her father to conserve Nebraska grasslands. 

“Prairie Plains has literally been in my life since I was born. I guess you could say I’m a bit of a grasslands nepo baby,” Bullerman said. “My dad is the restoration director, so even as a kid I would be out helping him in the field.” 

Today, Emma is taking a more active role in aiding her dad’s work to restore native prairies. 

“A lot of my summer will be in the truck with him driving across Nebraska to collect the native grassland seeds that we put into our restoration sites,” she said. “Basically, I’m just learning the ropes of everything that goes into grassland restoration.” 

As a teen, Bullerman thought she wanted to do anything but follow her dad’s footsteps. Eventually, a few stalled paths helped her rediscover her love for her hometown. 

“In high school and coming into college, I really thought I wanted to leave Nebraska and do something totally different from my dad,” she said. “I tried a few other directions, but pretty quickly could tell that I wasn’t passionate about them. I took a semester off, and then my boss at Prairie Plains reached out about helping with social media.” 

It didn’t take long for Bullerman to catch the bug for conservation work and switch her major to fisheries and wildlife, the same degree program her father graduated from in 1995. In fact, she is a fourth-generation Husker with strong ties to ag and food science. Her grandfather is Dr. Lloyd Bullerman, a former a professor of food science, microbiology and food safety at the university, and her aunt studied food science at NU as well. 

Getting back to Prairie Plains in her early college years helped Bullerman realize that she, too, had a calling toward this field. 

“Being out in the field with my dad one day, I had a moment where I was like, ‘Oh, this is what I’ve been looking for. This is what I want to do.’ Finding my way back has been really, really beautiful.” 

Working with her dad, she’s is feeling better than ever about her direction, her hometown and her future in Nebraska. 

“Doing this work and studying at UNL has given me a whole new perspective on the state,” she said. “I used to be someone who was like, ‘I want to get out of here after I graduate.’ Restoring prairies and traveling all over Nebraska has helped me see that it’s so beautiful here, I just didn’t take the time to see it before.”