One of the things the two of us definitely agree on is that this team did not meet the expectations we had for it, but that’s the case with anyone who pays attention to Nebraska baseball. So, we don’t need to ask that question.
There are probably a number of questions each of us has about the season that cannot be answered because there simply may not be one. We’re going to share a few of out thoughts, but we both still have a lot more questions than answers.
At the end of their final broadcast in North Carolina, Ben McLaughlin and Nick Handley both agreed that the 2025 season will go down as very memorable. Of course, both of them had a very close relationship with Greg Sharpe and that most certainly was something that was with them during every game.
Memories that last are those connected with strong emotions, and that makes a lot of sense. For other fans though, time will tell whether or not there are things that happened this year that will stand out over time. We’ll talk about a few of those as well.
For the second year in a row, Nebraska won the Big Ten Tournament championship and played in a regional. That simple metric states that this season was a success. But was it enough of a success for Nebraska fans? This is one group of people that is often hard to please!
We’re going to take a look back at this season today, and tomorrow we are going to look ahead. We’ll also be back next week looking at a couple of big topics!
How would you grade the team in terms of offense, defense, pitching, and coaching?
Aaron:
The thing I was most confident in was the defense. For trying to move guys around to get the hot bats like Nunez, Buettenback, & Jesske in made it slip at times, but prior to everything spiraling out of control on the final day, it was a top 40-50 defense. And that’s behind pitchers that were allowing a ton of balls to be put in play. So B/B+ for defense. Pitching, for what they had to work with, to have the success at the end of the season that they did, I’d give at least a C+.
When Big Mac went down, I foresaw a loooong road ahead. Timmerman would have been the next guy up, but he was already out. Carson Jasa was the one guy that had a pitch that was electric enough to potentially take a weekend spot and excel, then he got hurt. Offense gets an F for the first half of the year, and a D for the second half. Hitting went up to a C starting at Maryland, but baserunning was still just awful beyond belief.
Coaching… idk this was the roughest bunch of scenarios I’ve seen take over an entire team. And I’m way too easy of a grader on coaches because I’ve lived with one, I give Bolt and Childress a B for managing the lineups and pitching staff through hectic times. How do you balance a group of returners you’ve seen be good/great on offense when EVERY SINGLE ONE was in a slump to start? The actual offensive coaches which by all accounts was Sirianni, big time F.
Todd:
Offense gets a D. Through most of the season the team struggled to have more than one batter hitting over .300. That’s horrible! This is the worst hitting Nebraska team I can recall watching. Base running was as bad as I can ever remember, and it was top-line guys doing it. Defense gets a C because as brilliant as they could be, they have six errors against Oklahoma, and similar performances at other points, though not quite that bad. Pitching gets a C as well.
Not a single dominant pitcher on the team. Broderick was very good most of the time, but not dominant. The lack of consistency hit this bunch too. The coaching staff gets a C as well. Crazy that with grades like this a team wins the B1G and plays in a regional, yet that tells you how good they should have been.
All-Big Ten pitcher Luke Broderick
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What was the highlight of the season for you?
Todd:
I have a couple, but I’m going with Ty Horn’s incredible pitching performance against UCLA to win the B1G tournament. Big crowd on a beautiful day, and a kid that was just outstanding, to say nothing of a defense that made plays and an offense that struck early and gave him the run support he needed to pitch without a great deal of pressure.
I can’t go without mentioning sitting with Aaron in the crowd behind home plate in Frisco during the LSU game and thousands of Tiger fans clapping and singing along to Calling Baton Rouge. Hell, Nebraska fans were clapping and singing too!
Aaron:
Three really stand out. I’d have to go with the LSU matchup in Frisco as #1. It’s not often as a Nebraska fan you get to experience being in the minority at a neutral location, but it can be fun when it’s not around a bunch of jerks like Iowa.
Horn’s championship is an all-timer, Id put that at #3, since I only got to watch on TV. But the 7th inning in the rubber match that led to a mediocre team trouncing a HEAVILY favored top 5 team in Oregon State at home for the first time in over a decade. That was spectacular! (Honorable mention to Michigan State’s right fielder!)
Who was this season’s top player?
Aaron:
What a simple question that is so hard to answer… I might anger the Todd with this one since he rarely makes the game changing play, but overall I’d have to pick Dylan Carey. He led the team in doubles and home runs, and started every game at short stop (much to Todd’s chagrin). His swinging at every ball in the dirt to start the season was tough to stomach, but he really improved that part of his game the final month.
Todd:
This is a conversation I’ve had with quite a few people and I think you look at the all-conference teams and realize that there wasn’t a real good player on this team.
This may be a surprise, but I think it was Robby Bolin. For the amount of time he spent on the field this season, I think he produced at the highest level. Though he started the first game of the season, he lost his spot as he got off slow and the coaches were looking for ways to go with the big bangers.
When the coaches decided they had to move to a more balanced attack and back to manufacturing runs rather than trying to set up for the long-ball, putting Bolin in right field with Silva in center finally ignited the offense. Robby Bolin was the top player on the team this year.
What is something that happened this season that you didn’t expect?
Todd:
I did not expect Cael Frost to struggle like he did this season. I didn’t expect him to put up the same numbers he did last year, but I expected him to secure a spot in the lineup for the entire season and hit a lot more consistently than he did. The guy had power, and when he got hold of one there was no doubt that it was a homer. It was a let-down for a team that was assembled for power.
To compound the issue, Dylan Carey and Joshua Overbeek got off to horrible starts and the other big bangers — Gabe Swansen, Max Buettenback, and Tyler Stone — were terribly inconsistent.
Aaron:
I don’t think anyone foresaw the team that was firing on all cylinders offensively at the end of last season struggling so much. It only lost one player of true consequence from that offense in Caron, while presumably adding 3 legit players in Frost, Helligso, and Bolin (and Buettenback finding himself in summer ball). Yet NOTHING worked. Zero slugging. We couldn’t hit with a runner on base to save our lives.
Our stolen bases and hit and run games were being used at about 30% of the rate of last season. Silva finishing the year with 11 stolen bases after having 32 last season. And the base running overall was just flat out atrocious.
Cael Frost hit missiles out of the park, but struggled otherwise.
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How would you compare this season’s team to last year’s? Was this year a step forward, backward, or did the team hold level?
Aaron:
I feel kinda the same way I did in 2019 and 2020. We didn’t have the high end stars of Caron, Matthews, Anderson, Sears, and sadly McConnaughey. But I feel the depth in the middle and back end of the roster is much better than it had been the past 2 years.
Unfortunately, a lot of subs had to be made because of either injury or ineffectiveness at the beginning of the year, and it wasn’t the massive drop in talent like the previous seasons. Now we just need to build upon that higher plateau.
Todd:
The team took a step back this season. There are so many things that I cannot put my finger on that I’d love to dig into, but I’ll be brief. This team never got into a groove or any kind of a rhythm. Aaron mentioned in one of his articles that there were high highs and low lows, so that means there was very little middle ground or consistency.
I can’t count the number of times that I thought “here they go!” and before you know it, there was another unexplainable loss. Scott Pose remarked on BTN during the B1G tournament that “this is the Nebraska team we all expected to see this year.” Yes it was, and because that team did not perform throughout the season, it was not at the same level as last year’s team.
What was a positive surprise for you this season?
Todd:
Devin Nunez. To see a freshman come out so hot at the start of the season, and then once teams got some data on him, he eventually adjusted and was perhaps the best offensive player down the stretch. If not the best, the most consistent.
I’m curious where he fits in next year as I think he’s a true second baseman and Brumbaugh is coming back. He was a bit shaky in the outfield, but with more work, maybe that’s where they put him. He needs to do more than DH.
Aaron:
The success overall of the freshmen pitchers. It has been a while since we’ve had a group of freshman really give meaningful innings in big games. They all started fairly slow, but April and May saw some really great outings.
For a stretch Bender, Blachowicz and Encarnacion had combined for over 18 innings in a row of shutout ball. We seem to finally be at a good position to build depth in a pitching staff for the first time since 2020.
What was a negative surprise for you this season?
Aaron:
The offensive output by the outfield was just abysmal for most of the season. Coming into the year we had power in Swansen and Frost whose reputation should have scared most anyone. Riley Silva should have been running circles around the basepaths.
To go along with that, we were hearing rumors that Robby Bolin might be good enough to just bench one of those guys from the word “Go!” They should have been our offensive leaders, and it finally all came around, save for Frost, in May, until Bolin pulled his hamstring. But it was beautiful for those 3 weeks!
Todd:
Aaron has nailed the biggest one, and it is easily extended to the infield as well, except for Cayden Brumbaugh, who was the most consistent hitter this season. However, the surprise that left me slack-jawed more times than I can count this year are the bone-headed base running mistakes.
When “Bolt Ball” is referenced, it is predicated on aggressive and well executed base running, along with unselfishness at the plate. What the hell happened to SMART aggressive base running? And, it wasn’t the just the young players! The fact that they ran themselves out of innings was incredibly frustrating.
Robby Bolin brought needed aggressive play when he became a regular in the lineup.
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What player that are fairly certain is departing are you going to miss the most?
Aaron:
I hope Riley Silva wants to come back and is wanted back with the new JUCO rules. But if not, hes one of my favorite guys to watch. I am a firm believer in you can’t call yourself a good team, unless you can play solid defense.
That starts with a legit SS, but having a guy in centerfield that has doubles and triples die in his glove is not only advantageous on the scorebook, but it affects both dugouts psyche as well. Silva has been one of the best at combining speed and instincts that we’ve had in a while.
Todd:
Will Walsh. Not a star or even one of the best pitchers in his time at Nebraska, but his complete game win last year against Michigan State when the team needed it the most goes down as one of the best pitching performances I have even seen.
He’s a guy that came in with little attention as a two-way player and early one saw more time playing first base than pitching. I respected he did what the coaching staff asked of him and what was best for the team. No flash. No ego. Just a very solid guy that came to work every day.
What did you think of the Big Ten this season?
Aaron:
It seems like the conference really built some momentum with the addition of the 4 west coast teams, and teams like Penn State and Illinois really trying to improve their programs. It was nice not having the teams on the schedule that were RPI tanks like the past few years, where even if you swept them in a 3 game series, your RPI went down.
Now… as good as the regular season was, I think the conference really messed up the tournament. Not the entire schedule or format or anything, but having the seed be the tiebreaker is just the worst thing I’ve ever heard of.
But overall, this is not your dad’s or older brother’s Big Ten. It will take some time to get the bias out of the way, but this conference should be on its way to being the equal the Big XII in a few years in conference RPI and perception.
Todd:
The Big Ten was better than the selection committee gave them credit for. As was shown by their regional performance, the SEC is vastly over-rated and that seems to be the measuring stick. The four Pac-12 teams improved the league. It was already getting two or three team in before they came in so why wasn’t it reasonable to believe they should get at least four or five in?
UCLA coach John Savage was very positive about the quality of teams and players in the conference, and believes it will continue to get better. To do that, teams need to help themselves to help the league, starting with upgrading non-conference schedules. I’m looking at you Iowa! Penn State has done that to an extent and they have made a commitment to the sport. It’s a solid league. Not SEC or ACC, but better than many people think.
What surprised you about the conference this season?
Todd: Penn State.
The Nittany Lions are becoming a legit baseball program. Coach Gambino is a hell of a coach and they have become a good baseball program. They still need to upgrade their scheduling, but they are becoming an asset to the conference.
Aaron:
That the west coast teams ended up being so dominant throughout the entire season. I thought the travel would eventually catch up with them despite them being the better teams, since you had to stay the entire weekend at a location unlike football or basketball.
Any parting thoughts?
Aaron:
I have no idea how to classify this season.
You can’t get wrapped up in preseason expectations. I hate that polls are done in any sport before a month into the season. Much was expected of this team before the season started, and I get that and shared in that expectation.
But no matter who comes back from the previous year, you have to remember that each team is its own team. Did this team underperform? I would say a little. But it had the toughest schedule I can remember in the past couple of decades, or at least since joining the Big Ten.
Combine that with losing some of the most important players on the roster early on or offensive guys cut down when they were red hot towards the end of the season and you have an equation for just a rough season.
This team never gave up though, and won all those series at the end, then ran through Omaha and got themselves another trophy! And in my opinion, you can’t call a season a failure when you are adding to the trophy case, and make the road to Omaha.
Todd:
This has been the most frustrating Nebraska baseball season that I can remember. I think I’ve articulated that through my responses above. I reminded myself “that’s baseball” a lot over the course of the season, but quit that as I continued to watch bad baseball being played by a team that should have been very good.
After thinking a lot about it, talking to other people covering the team, and listening closely to what Coach Bolt said in press conferences at the end of the season, I believe the California trip early in the season had a negative impact on this team that lasted quite a ways into the season.
They were 3-5 on that trip and combined with losing the home series to Washington, their season blew up right in front of them. I’m not sure they got past that until the last few weeks of the season. They did not have the kind of player leadership to work through that, and I believe that “getting right” took a lot more attention than it should have.
As Yogi Berra said, “Baseball is ninety percent mental, and the other half is physical.” You get what I mean.
What are your thoughts and opinions on the season? How do you respond to some of the topics the two of us pondered? Did the season meet your expectations? Was it a success?
Will Walsh has been a solid member of the staff over the past few years and pitched some big games.
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