Undertow
New member
The season is already underway with the Husker's sporting a 7-2 record after two weekends.
Tristen Edwards and Alyvia Simmons are back and they were the top 2 hitters by average on the team last year. Edwards also led the team in home runs and slugging percentage and was 1st team All-B1G. Of course Kaylan Jablonski is gone, and she was 2nd on the team in home runs and slugging percentage. Additionally, she was by far the best pitcher on the staff. Simmons and Jablonski were 2nd team All-B1G. Edwards has started out well this season and has B1G player of the week and National player of the week recognition already under her belt.
Of the newcomers, Wallace and Walljasper appear to be the headliners. Walljasper (pitcher) was named California POY small school division, and Wallace (pitcher/infielder) was named Nebraska Gatorade's POY. Walljasper has started out hot at the plate AND on the mound and has a B1G freshman of the week award already.
From a pitching perspective, losing Jablonski was a noticeable hit. She was 21-14 winning about two-thirds of the teams 31 victories. She also had 6 saves. The 2nd best pitcher on the staff was Olivia Ferrel who was 9-8 with an ERA over 4, as a freshman. The big disappointment from the pitching side was the lack of production from Regan Mergele. She was the huge get of the 2017 recruiting cycle coming from Butler County Juco having won a national championship her sophomore year and having compiled a 53-3 record with a 1.15 ERA in her two years there. In her junior year at Nebraska, she was nearly invisible with a 1-1 record and a nearly 5 ERA in 6 starts. I don't know if it was an injury problem or if the stage is "too big," but I expected a better transition after being so dominant at the Juco level.
This year, Walljasper and Wallace have already been inserted into the rotation with mixed but mostly positive results. Walljasper is 2-0 with an ERA under 2. Wallace is also 2-0 but got abused in a no decision and currently has an ERA over 5. Ferrel got absolutely lit on an outing against Texas Tech (0 outs, 7 earned runs), but followed that up with a decent outing last weekend against Pitt. The good news is that after taking a loss in relief in the first weekend, Mergele came back with a complete game shutout of NC State with 9 strikeouts and only 3 walks. She (Mergele) currently has an ERA hovering around 1 after 18 innings pitched with 27 strikeouts against only 9 walks. Right now it appears to be pitching by committee with a young staff that includes 2 freshman and a sophomore. It will be interesting on how much of a load Mergele takes if she continues to pitch well.
I couldn't find a pre-season poll for the B1G, but initially it appeared that Michigan & Minnesota were the class of the league, followed by Northwestern and Ohio State, with Wisconsin and Nebraska competing for NCAA tournament berths. However, after two weekends, Illinois and Indiana have also inserted themselves as contenders in the conference.
Last year, the team started out pretty well in non-conference by beating a few teams ranked in the top 25. Of course they did get drilled by the big dogs (Washington and Oklahoma) but that was to be expected. They started out the B1G season by keeping their heads above water in the first half of conference play (8-5), but then they lost 8 straight before winning the final regular season game. They followed up a 9-13 conference season with a first round loss in the conference tournament. And this resulted in being shut out of the NCAA tournament for the 2nd straight year.
Revelle is a HOF coach. She has guided the team to the NCAA's in 20 of 26 years. However, two of the six years her teams haven't made it.....have been the last two. Coach Sippel is the pitching coach and has averaged an All Conference performer per year at that position. She has actually been at Nebraska longer than Coach Revelle. The question might be are they losing their edge as age creeps up on them. Or are the past two years the exception.
On most days, this team will score on the plus side of 4 runs. The big unknown is the pitching. It is probably too much too ask Walljasper and Wallace to come in and carry the group. Ferrel needs to continue to improve and lower her ERA down in the low 3s. Mergele needs to "obtain, retain, and sustain" the form that made her an imposing Juco pitcher. Otherwise, it looks like they're missing the NCAAs for a third straight year.
Tristen Edwards and Alyvia Simmons are back and they were the top 2 hitters by average on the team last year. Edwards also led the team in home runs and slugging percentage and was 1st team All-B1G. Of course Kaylan Jablonski is gone, and she was 2nd on the team in home runs and slugging percentage. Additionally, she was by far the best pitcher on the staff. Simmons and Jablonski were 2nd team All-B1G. Edwards has started out well this season and has B1G player of the week and National player of the week recognition already under her belt.
Of the newcomers, Wallace and Walljasper appear to be the headliners. Walljasper (pitcher) was named California POY small school division, and Wallace (pitcher/infielder) was named Nebraska Gatorade's POY. Walljasper has started out hot at the plate AND on the mound and has a B1G freshman of the week award already.
From a pitching perspective, losing Jablonski was a noticeable hit. She was 21-14 winning about two-thirds of the teams 31 victories. She also had 6 saves. The 2nd best pitcher on the staff was Olivia Ferrel who was 9-8 with an ERA over 4, as a freshman. The big disappointment from the pitching side was the lack of production from Regan Mergele. She was the huge get of the 2017 recruiting cycle coming from Butler County Juco having won a national championship her sophomore year and having compiled a 53-3 record with a 1.15 ERA in her two years there. In her junior year at Nebraska, she was nearly invisible with a 1-1 record and a nearly 5 ERA in 6 starts. I don't know if it was an injury problem or if the stage is "too big," but I expected a better transition after being so dominant at the Juco level.
This year, Walljasper and Wallace have already been inserted into the rotation with mixed but mostly positive results. Walljasper is 2-0 with an ERA under 2. Wallace is also 2-0 but got abused in a no decision and currently has an ERA over 5. Ferrel got absolutely lit on an outing against Texas Tech (0 outs, 7 earned runs), but followed that up with a decent outing last weekend against Pitt. The good news is that after taking a loss in relief in the first weekend, Mergele came back with a complete game shutout of NC State with 9 strikeouts and only 3 walks. She (Mergele) currently has an ERA hovering around 1 after 18 innings pitched with 27 strikeouts against only 9 walks. Right now it appears to be pitching by committee with a young staff that includes 2 freshman and a sophomore. It will be interesting on how much of a load Mergele takes if she continues to pitch well.
I couldn't find a pre-season poll for the B1G, but initially it appeared that Michigan & Minnesota were the class of the league, followed by Northwestern and Ohio State, with Wisconsin and Nebraska competing for NCAA tournament berths. However, after two weekends, Illinois and Indiana have also inserted themselves as contenders in the conference.
Last year, the team started out pretty well in non-conference by beating a few teams ranked in the top 25. Of course they did get drilled by the big dogs (Washington and Oklahoma) but that was to be expected. They started out the B1G season by keeping their heads above water in the first half of conference play (8-5), but then they lost 8 straight before winning the final regular season game. They followed up a 9-13 conference season with a first round loss in the conference tournament. And this resulted in being shut out of the NCAA tournament for the 2nd straight year.
Revelle is a HOF coach. She has guided the team to the NCAA's in 20 of 26 years. However, two of the six years her teams haven't made it.....have been the last two. Coach Sippel is the pitching coach and has averaged an All Conference performer per year at that position. She has actually been at Nebraska longer than Coach Revelle. The question might be are they losing their edge as age creeps up on them. Or are the past two years the exception.
On most days, this team will score on the plus side of 4 runs. The big unknown is the pitching. It is probably too much too ask Walljasper and Wallace to come in and carry the group. Ferrel needs to continue to improve and lower her ERA down in the low 3s. Mergele needs to "obtain, retain, and sustain" the form that made her an imposing Juco pitcher. Otherwise, it looks like they're missing the NCAAs for a third straight year.
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