The No. 1 Nebraska softball team (49-6) will make its eighth Women’s College World Series appearance on Thursday, May 28, as it takes on the No. 10 Arkansas Razorbacks at Devon Park in Oklahoma City, Okla. Tonight’s action will start at 8:30 p.m. (CT). NU is the No. 4 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and Arkansas is the No. 5 overall seed. NU finished the regular season with a 43-6 (.878) record, good for the best regular-season winning percentage in program history.
The Huskers went 23-1 in Big Ten play, which tied the Big Ten record for conference wins in a season, and clinched an outright Big Ten regular-season title. The Huskers also won the Big Ten Tournament last weekend to grab their 22nd overall conference title. NU downed South Dakota once and Grand Canyon twice in the Lincoln Regional last weekend to advance to Super Regionals. The 10th regional title in program history was powered by pitching, as Jordy Frahm and Alexis Jensen allowed only four hits and one run across three games. At the Lincoln Super Regional, Nebraska beat No. 15 Oklahoma State by scores of 8-1 and 9-1 (5 inn.) to advance to its first WCWS since 2013. Husker play by play voice Nate Rohr previews tonight’s matchup with Jayson Jorgensen.
Arkansas is 47-11 this season with a program-record 26 wins coming by run-rule. Arkansas joined the 1995 Arizona Wildcats as the only teams in program history to run-rule its first five games in the NCAA tournament. The Hogs swept their way through Super Regionals by defeating Duke 14-5 (5 inn.) in game one before punching their ticket to Oklahoma City with a 10-2 (5 inn.) triumph over Duke on Saturday. The Razorbacks were the only team in the nation to go 3-0 with three run-rule wins in regional play after defeating Fordham 8-0 (6 inn.) and USF twice by the scores of 9-1 and 10-2 in six innings. It marked just the eighth time in NCAA Tournament history that a team had gone undefeated while winning each of its games by run-rule since the Super Regional format was introduced in 2005. The Hogs are outscoring opponents 447-153 this season.
