Nebraska softball pitcher and utility player Jordyn Bahl was named a Top 25 finalist for the USA Softball/ESPN National Player of the Year, the organization announced on Wednesday. Bahl was a top-10 finalist for the award in both 2022 and 2023 while at Oklahoma.
Bahl was one of seven Big Ten players to make the list of 25 player-of-the-year finalists. As a conference, the Big Ten had more players selected as finalists than every other conference combined except the SEC.
The honor continues a decorated junior campaign for Bahl, who was selected as the nation’s No. 1 two-way player this week by Softball America and D1 Softball. Bahl has also been a two-time national player of the week this spring, and she has won five Big Ten weekly awards, including four pitcher-of-the-week honors and one player-of-the-week award.
A native of Papillion, Neb., Bahl leads the Huskers in every pitching category and almost every offensive category. She boasts a batting average of .468 on the season, which ranks 10th nationally. She has also contributed 55 runs, 65 hits, 56 RBIs, 15 doubles and 17 home runs so far this year. Bahl is the first Husker in school history to record 15 doubles and 15 home runs in the same season.
In the circle, the junior has notched an ERA of 1.56 and a record of 20-5 with two saves. She has struck out 218 batters, which is a career high. Bahl has appeared in 30 games and started 24 and adds two saves and six shutouts.
Bahl is ranked in the top 15 nationally in numerous offensive and pitching categories, including: opponent batting average (2nd), hits allowed per seven innings (5th), shutouts (6th), strikeouts (6th), strikeouts per seven innings (6th), total bases (8th), extra-base hits (9th), slugging percentage (9th), batting average (10th), complete games (11th), victories (11th), ERA (12th), runs per game (12th), and WHIP (15th).
Bahl is on pace for numerous school records. If the season ended today, she would rank first in batting average and slugging percentage, second in extra-base hits, fifth in total bases, sixth in doubles, seventh in home runs and runs scored and eighth in RBIs and winning percentage.
She has helped the Huskers set the single-season home run record with 93 so far and the single-season extra-base hit record with 184.
Bahl is the first Husker to be named one of the 25 player-of-the-year finalists since Taylor Edwards, who was a finalist in 2011. The current list of finalists will be narrowed to 10 on May 14.
