SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
The news broke on Friday. Oklahoma’s All-America softball pitcher Jordy Bahl, so familiar with the short ride from Norman to Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series, has decided to transfer to her home state of Nebraska.
The Lincoln campus is an hour’s drive from Bahl’s home town of Papillion.
“I had actually decided on Nebraska my freshmen year,” said Bahl now a sophomore, ” but changed my mind and selected Oklahoma.”
A 5-foot-8 righthander, Bahl featured a quick, crafty windup from the circle and displayed a rise ball, curve, fastball and change-up in racking up a 44-2 record that included 15 shutouts, five saves, and a 1.00 earned run average.
She was named Most Valuable Player of the recent CWS as she set 3rd-ranked Florida State down in back-to-back games.
She sparked the Sooners to a 61-1 record this past season, a record 53-game winning streak, and with the nation’s top-ranked softball team for the sixth time this decade.
“We wish Jordy the best of everything,” said lone-time Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso, “she notified us Friday and said she just felt like going home to Nebraska, but can never forget the joy she had playing for us, and we will always treasure having such a talented athlete like her.”
The Cornhuskers play out of the Big Ten. They went 36-22 last season, 13-10 in the conference, 8-5 at home, 12-9 away, 16-8 on neutral fields, and 10-4 in one-run games. They lose two senior pitchers, but return three freshmen and a sophomore, two righthanders and one southpaw.
For battery mates, Bahl will see sophomore Haidyn Warner and junior McKinnley Malecha. Head coach Rhona Revelle, in her 30th year in the role, returns two seniors, two juniors. seven sophomores and five freshmen.
“Wow,” I’d say that its great news for my program, Revelle said, “It’s a true Nebraska athlete making a decision to return to Lincoln, and headline news for us.”
