Nebraska baseball kicks off its season out west in the MLB Desert Invitational this weekend for the second consecutive year.
The Huskers will first play UConn on Friday at 7 p.m. CT and Northeastern on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. They will then end the weekend with Grand Canyon on Sunday at 6:30 p.m., and finally close things out against Stanford on Monday at 2 p.m.
Nebraska will have to be ready to go from the jump this year, as all four teams set to play this weekend had a winning record last season.
In 2025, UConn went 38-21, Northeastern went 49-11, Grand Canyon posted a 31-27 record and Stanford finished just above .500 at 27-25.
Outside of the Huskers, Northeastern was the only team from this group to make the NCAA tournament, in which it earned a No. 2 seed in the Tallahassee Regional. It was stopped from progressing any further after losing to No. 3 Mississippi State twice early on.
“Don’t let them steal first,” head coach Will Bolt said when asked about his approach to playing four strong opponents. “There’s a lot of different looks we’ll be getting from these four different teams that we’re playing. I think UConn and Northeastern both are going to want to push the envelope a little bit on the bases.”
Before the Big Ten Tournament, the Huskers’ longest win streak was three games, a mark they reached twice. They rallied off four wins in late May to win the conference title for the second straight year.
While Nebraska pulled together wins late last year, it had an average start in February. The Huskers started the season ranked No. 24 in the country and went 2-1 in their first MLB Desert Invitational, losing to an unranked UC Irvine but also topping No. 16 Vanderbilt and San Diego State.
Their win against Vanderbilt brought them up to No. 23, but after going 1-3 in their first four true road games against unranked Grand Canyon and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, they fell out of the top 25 and never made it back in for the rest of the season.
An interesting addition this year for Nebraska is right-handed pitcher Cooper Katskee. The redshirt junior started his career in the Big Ten for two seasons with Indiana before transferring to Miami-Ohio for a single season last year. He will have his first start as a Husker on Sunday against Grand Canyon.
Katskee was the MAC pitcher of the year with the RedHawks and was named a third-team All-American last year. He is projected to remain an All-American this year and also help out an already strong pitching rotation that includes returnee right-handers junior Ty Horn and sophomores Gavin Blachowicz and Carson Jasa.
Jasa will start on the mound on Saturday against Northeastern, and Blachowicz is the confirmed starter for Monday’s game against Stanford.
Horn is the confirmed starter for Friday’s season opener and is expected to be a leading force on the mound and in the clubhouse for Nebraska this season.
“At the beginning of last year, it was all about what I could do to help myself,” Horn said. “I figured out I need to be thinking about how I can help the team towards the end of the year last year. I want to be a facilitator and put the team in a position to win this year.”
Another expected leader for the Huskers this year is senior infielder Jett Buck, who was named a Division II second-team All-American last year in his second season with Washburn. Buck also spent two years with Kansas City Community College prior to his stint with Washburn.
“We’re ready to go,” Buck said when asked how the team feels about this upcoming opening weekend. “We look good, we feel good and I’m excited to see what we’ll be able to do. There’s a bunch of transfers, but that also means we have a lot of knowledge.”
Buck has played many positions during his collegiate career, but he’ll start his time with Nebraska at second base.
The reigning Big Ten champions are set to return to the diamond for another season. After months of building chemistry, the Huskers are ready to start things off on the right foot this weekend.
“Just like any other year, we have some guys that are starting to turn a corner,” Bolt said. “We have a pretty good feel for who our top nine guys are. They’ve meshed well together and have been talking about how close and synergistic they’ve been since August.”