Nebraska baseball's experience, track record brings hope for big 2025 season

LINCOLN The rumble of construction equipment persisted between the ping of bats and pops of leather.

Outdoor work on a sunny January afternoon.

While the Nebraska baseball team practiced Friday on a new field at the Sandhills Global Youth Complex, major building efforts continued all around.

A few foul balls bounced into gravel areas.

Some adjacent diamonds sat still incomplete.

Players during one break jogged to a line of porta-potties.

The Huskers arent crafting something brand new.

In a reality uncommon in college baseball and unique to the coach Will Bolt era Big Red already knows most of what it has.

The core of a 40-win club that claimed the Big Ten tournament and qualified for an NCAA regional still resides between Salt Creek and I-180.

Players arent just optimistic about a repeat and more they already know what it requires.

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...Everyones just so mature with how they go about things.

NU could roll out the same postseason lineup from last season minus catcher Josh Caron if it wanted.

And even the new probable starting backstop, senior Hogan Helligso, has 126 games of college experience with Creighton.

The pitching staff returns nearly every high-leverage arm save for B1G Pitcher of the Year Brett Sears from a group that led the league in earned-run average and placed among the nations best in strikeout-to-walk ratio, a central metric for command.

Nebraska retained better than 66% of its 2024 innings in all and nearly the same percentage of its plate appearances from an aggressive, grind-it-out offense that warmed up with the weather last season.

So these Huskers tweak and update instead of overhaul.

Everyone but the pitcher does up-downs during a scrimmage if a batter dodges a pitch instead of wearing it.

They pause to discuss a pickoff sequence.

They cheer each other in the dugouts, and everybody already has a nickname.

Bolts teams have annually reset more than half the roster amid radical changes to the sport through the pandemic, the transfer portal and name-image-likeness financial payments.

This composition is different with 23 returners and 17 newcomers.

Key veterans surround the infield and outfield, giving NU the potential for a starting nine with 24-plus years of previous college experience.

Behind the vets is a wave of bats pushing the status quo.

Outfielder Robby Bolin is a junior-college add who drew draft interest.

Corner outfielder Max Buettenback broke out during the summer and fall.

Frost is the reigning Summit League Player of the Year with South Dakota State.

Outfielder/catcher Will Jesske took an offseason jump.

Cayden Brumbaugh and Rhett Stokes continue their battle for the second-base job into a new year.

Its the fine line between These are our guys who were going to roll with and knowing they can be replaced in the lineup if theyre not performing, Bolt said.

Theyre staying on their toes but theyre confident too.

If youre hitting, youre going to be in the lineup and were not going to lose a lot defensively.

National outlets are recognizing Nebraskas potential with a smattering of top-25 honors.

The Huskers last garnered preseason rankings in 2022 ending a 15-year drought and quickly fell out on their way to a losing campaign.

That team had to replace most of its rotation, the best two-way player in the country, its entire outfield and another All-B1G standout from the conference-title team a spring prior.

The leap of faith isnt nearly as big for why this version of NU can carry on.

Right-hander Mason McConnaughey a preseason All-American and rare returning Big Ten ace said the group feels privilege more than pressure with so many contributors still in red.

They rallied and battled in games together last year.

They endured struggles.

They won five straight elimination contests in Omaha to dogpile as league tourney champs.

Leaders of the vocal and by-example variety are as common as spring dandelions.

Itll just go to show how having this experience and the guys back will help us down the road, McConnaughey said.

Many of Nebraskas best teams from the early 2000s also kept accomplished cores intact for deep NCAA tournament runs.

Drew Christo who could start or be a high-leverage bullpen arm spurned pro ball for a senior season at Nebraska.

Starting pitcher Will Walsh returns for a fifth year.

Outfielder Gabe Swansen is back for his fourth and is a top run-producing candidate.

Jackson Brockett could have left last year amid a diminished role but responded late and is another leading rotation option as a senior.

The 2017 Texas A&M club on which Bolt was an assistant under current NU pitching coach Rob Childress benefited from age too, Bolt said.

That squad was perhaps less talented relative to other Aggies groups but packed with veterans who went 36-21 and reached the College World Series.

Bolt has now held his current job longer than any in his coaching career after arriving in Lincoln in the summer of 2019.

Hes building toward something too spurred by staff continuity and program momentum.

Also resources in the form of NIL funding and improving facilities including the new Sandhills Global complex on which Nebraska debuted last week.

Moving toward the goals that we want to get to, yeah, its fun, Bolt said.

Ive had a lot of fun with it.

My why is I want to help recreate experiences for our players that I got to have here.

I want to win a national championship at Nebraska.

Thats my dream.

It starts Feb.

14 with a four-game weekend in Arizona that includes three showdowns with NCAA qualifiers from last year.

The daunting schedule continues from there in the kind of relentless challenge better suited for 20-somethings than teenagers.

Expectations are high the Huskers, as usual, are open about their goal of being one of 16 regional hosts in an achievement they last earned in 2008.

A track record validates the optimism as more than just hope.

Everyone trusts everyone, Frost said.

We know everyones going to get their work in and everyones trustworthy.

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