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Nebraska softball pitcher Jordy Bahl back from ACL injury, playing with 'freedom' in Christ

By Kevin Mercer Feb 19, 2025
Nebraska pitcher Jordy Bahl. (Photo courtesy of Nebraska Athletics)

It may be a brighter shade of red, but it’s the same Jordy Bahl.

The redshirt junior Nebraska softball pitcher is finally getting an opportunity to round into form with the Cornhuskers, having made nine appearances and four starts (with three complete games) this season. She’s surrendered only 16 hits so far, and she tossed a no-hitter in a 10-0 win against Northern Colorado on Saturday. Nebraska is ranked No. 16 in the country with an 8-2 record.

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Nebraska’s first contest of the 2025 campaign, a 7-1 upset of No. 6 Tennessee, saw Bahl smash a two-run home run in the fifth inning and pitch the first of what is likely to be many complete games this season. The homer was her first as a collegian.

Bahl was the Women’s College World Series Most Outstanding Player with the Oklahoma Sooners in 2023, the third of what became a women’s college softball record four consecutive national championships for that program. After winning the national title, the two-time first-team All-American wrote a prayer to God in a post on Instagram.

“Lord may we forever be unapologetic of the Spirit and the boldness you fill us with,” Bahl wrote. “May we take up our cross everyday and live for you, not this world. This place is not our home. Thank you for these friendships, memories, and talents. Thank you for taking the weight and burdens when we hand all the glory over to you. We are so undeserving.”

In a surprising move, Bahl announced her intentions to transfer from Oklahoma a few days later, citing a desire to be closer to her family in her home state of Nebraska. A week after that, she committed to the Cornhuskers.

“The most important thing in my life after my faith, is my family,” she wrote in a post on X announcing her transfer. “… The bond developed with these girls (teammates) can never, and will never be broken. My sisters in Christ.”

Bahl’s tenure in the brighter red didn’t begin as she or Nebraska fans had hoped, however, as she succumbed to a left ACL tear just 2.1 innings into her debut game last year. In the lead-up to this 2025 season, a fully healthy Jordy Bahl was asked in a press conference to reflect on the process of recovering from such a major injury.

“I never really had a moment of, ‘God, why?’ but almost like, ‘God, thank You!’ Because in a strange way, I know I needed a rest, and I knew that if it was up to me, I was never gonna take one. So I almost felt like God was saying, like, ‘Here, you’re forced to take one. So take it,'” she said.

Bahl revealed that she has struggled with putting undue pressure on herself as an athlete in the past, and the reset that her ACL injury provided helped her to recognize another truth from her loving Heavenly Father.

“I kind of felt God saying, like, ‘It never had to be this way. It never had to be you feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders, because that’s not the expectation I put on you,'” she said. “So my goal for myself this season is to play this year and remember that, and remember the freedom I felt while I was on the sideline and try to have that same, I guess, mindset and relief as I’m actually playing.”

Growing up in a Christian family, Bahl knew about God but did not understand what it meant to have a personal relationship with Him until high school. Her time with the Sooners deepened her faith, and she appeared on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in March 2023. Now with the Cornhuskers, she is continuing to grow in Christ. She posts regularly on social media about God and His Word.

 

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A post shared by Jordyn Bahl (@jordybahl)


At Nebraska, perhaps playing more than ever before out of her freedom in Christ, Bahl has been tasked with not only shutting down the opposing team’s offense, but also with generating some offense of her own, and she is on pace to far surpass her hitting totals with Oklahoma. She recorded 40 total at-bats with the Sooners but already has 26 at-bats in nine games this season, setting career highs in hits (14), runs scored (14), RBIs (12) and the first five homers of her career.

“Oh softball. You’re not who I am. You’re something I do,” she wrote in an Instagram post in 2021. “You’re an incredible gift that God has blessed me with. You have introduced me to some of the most amazing, God fearing people I know.

“After years of my identity being lost in you, you have showed me the way to my real purpose which is found in my Creator. The chains are broken. Thank you softball for the journey you’re taking me on, and thank you God for being present in every step along the way, before I even knew you were there.”

Bahl and her Cornhusker teammates will take the field again on Thursday for the start of the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, California. They will take on Baylor at 5:30 p.m. ET and then No. 4 UCLA at 10:30 p.m. ET as they try to extend their win streak to seven.

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