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Nebraska

Will Bolt delivers first reaction to facing Skip Johnson, Oklahoma

Danby: Daniel Hager05/27/25DanielHagerOn3
Will Bolt-delivers-first-reaction-facing-Skip-Johnson-Oklahoma
Nebraska baseball head coach Will Bolt (Photo via Nebraska Athletics)

For the second consecutive season, the Big Ten Tournament Champion Nebraska Cornhuskers are headed back to the NCAA Tournament. The ‘Huskers were selected to the Chapel Hill Regional, consisting of No. 1 seed North Carolina, No. 2 seed Oklahoma and No. 4 seed Holy Cross.

Nebraska and Oklahoma will close the opening day of the Chapel Hill Regional Friday night at 5:00 pm (ESPN+). Nebraska head coach Will Bolt, who is making his third NCAA Tournament appearance since taking over the job in 2020, opened up about facing the Sooners and head coach Skip Johnson on Monday.

“I’ve known Skip since Region XIV East days since he was at Navarro Junior College,” Bolt said following the NCAA Selection Show. “He’s obviously done a really good job there at Oklahoma. I know we’re going to face a really good pitcher and a really good pitching staff. That’s his line of expertise there and we’ll kind of dive in more to them today. Don’t know a ton about their team at this point but we’ll take a look this afternoon.”

Bolt is likely referencing All-SEC First Team selection right-handed pitcher Kyson Witherspoon, whose 2.47 ERA was best in the conference among starting pitchers. As a team, the Sooners boast a 4.44 ERA, which ranks 28th in the country. They will be a tall task for a Nebraska team hitting for a .278 team batting average, which ranks 161st in the country.

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“We just kind of go with the flow and figure out where to go once they tell us where we’re going, whether its a bus or a plane trip,” Johnson continued. “We’re excited. I’ve never been to Chapel Hill before, and I know they have an awesome setting. We’re excited to be apart of it.”

The Huskers finished the regular season with a 28-27 (15-15) record, earning the eight seed in the Big Ten Tournament. They needed to win the event to clinch a second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament and that’s exactly what they did. Nebraska downed Michigan State, Penn State and Regional hosts Oregon and UCLA to win its second straight Big Ten Tournament Title (first time in program history).

The Nebraska program has not made it to the Men’s College World Series (located in Omaha, NE) since 2005, which was also the last time it won an NCAA Tournament Regional. It owns a 20-15 all-time winning record against Oklahoma, the team it will face in its Regional opener on Friday.