OKLAHOMA CITY — Not once in the 133 pitches over 10 innings, with the opening game of the Women’s College World Series hanging in the balance, did Nebraska coach Rhonda Revelle consider pulling her ace.
Not everyone is Jordy Frahm.
On a day defined by pitching in a season headlined by record-setting offense, Frahm delivered a voracious and gutty nightcap. Inning after inning, the senior right-hander kept coming out to the circle. Every trip felt like a dare, an invitation for Arkansas to tee off and walk out.
Not against Jordy Frahm.
As the game went deeper, it became a “matter of being in control of everything I could be in control of,” Frahm said. For the two-time NFCA Player of the Year, that covers a lot. It wasn’t that Frahm was perfect. She allowed eight hits and three runs, striking out nine, in the complete game.
The ace did just enough each time out in front of a record-breaking crowd at Devon Park, delivering an unreal performance in an instant classic to send Nebraska to a 5-3 walk-off win on the first day of the WCWS. The Cornhuskers, playing in their first WCWS since 2013, will face Alabama on Saturday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) in the double-elimination tournament.
Arkansas nearly completed the dare, pushing across the potential winning run in the eighth inning on a lead-off single, fielder’s choice and Ella McDowell’s RBI-single to left. Frahm struck out the final batter, stranding a runner for the third consecutive inning.
It wasn’t much different than any other game for Frahm, one of the best at holding opponents from crossing home.
“What you see is what you get every day,” Revelle said. “Her consistency is contagious. Her consistency is inspiring because it’s not just consistency, it’s consistency performing in an elite level consistently.”
Nearly every coach fielded questions about Frahm, a two-time champion at Oklahoma before transferring home to Nebraska, on Wednesday ahead of her final collegiate games. They praised her solid two-way play, her bravery, her competitive tenacity.
Revelle spoke of her intention on the end goal. Not awards, which she continued to rack up this week, but on the specific pitch and how she wants it to look or feel.
“There have been times in a bullpen where she kind of shot me that look, and I’d say, ‘Good pitch,’ and she’s like, ‘No, it’s not,’” Revelle said. “I’ve just smartened — I only have to hear that so many times. Now I’ll just say, ‘Did you like that pitch?’ See, I’ve gotten smarter. She’ll say, ‘Yeah, it was all right.’ Hardly ever was it a good one.”
It’s a focus that dates back to high school, when Papillion-La Vista head coach Todd Petersen marveled at her adamance on fundamentals.
“That’s something she does better than anybody because they always say, ‘stay in the moment,’ all these types of things,” Petersen, who was in the stands to see Frahm’s performance, told Yahoo Sports before the game. “And then you kind of go look at this moment, you’re playing to go to the College World Series, you’re playing for a national championship. I mean, it’s so easy to make that be so big.”
Frahm admitted she was “juiced up” to start the game. She gave up singles in each of the first two innings, allowing Arkansas to capitalize on a home run by Kailey Wyckoff for a 2-0 lead. It was monumental in a pitcher’s duel.
“There was so much adrenaline and it was fun, but I think as the game went on, that settled in a little bit,” Frahm said. Her Cornhuskers teammates, half of whom are from the state, had her back, pushing across two runs to tie the game in the bottom of the fourth to renew the game.
UCLA’s Taylor Tinsley (6 earned runs, 10 hits) and Alabama’s Jocelyn Briski (3 earned runs, 6 hits) pitched full games in their matchup, with Briski earning the win. No other pitcher in the morning session went deeper than four.
“It’s hard for any pitcher in today’s game to go seven innings, getting back to the top of the order for the fourth time,” said Tennessee head coach Karen Weekly, who has some of the game’s best arms on her staff, after a 6-3 win over reigning champion Texas. “Anytime you do that, no matter who you are, the advantage starts to shift to the hitters.”
Frahm proved that wrong, at least for a night. She struck out two more in the ninth inning, ringing her total up to nine. Three of them came in the extra innings.
“As the pitcher, you’re just like, all right, let’s do what we can to let someone on this team be in the opportunity to be in the moment when they need to be in,” Frahm said.
Frahm led off the eighth with a third base line drive that died into the defender’s glove, then spoke at length with teammate Hannah Coor before she stepped into the box and crushed a homer. Frahm doesn’t remember what she said to Coor, or maybe she isn’t inclined to give that away while their season continues.
The reasoning remains the same either way, another facet of her championship approach.
“You’re doing whatever you can to take your at-bat [and] give whatever information you can to the next person up to help them,” Frahm said. “You see that throughout the whole lineup. That’s one thing we’re huge on.”
Coor’s home run on a change-up that Arkansas head coach Courtney Deifel said will “haunt my dreams” sailed over left center, tying the game and bringing Frahm out to the circle for a ninth and later 10th time. Their offense had already chased Arkansas starter, sophomore Payton Burnham, after four innings.
While Frahm strengthened with time, senior lefty Robyn Herron, who went 5.2 innings, was starting to lose control. She missed high and inside on Frahm, who grounded out, and hit Coor near the same missed spot to put her on base. Hannah Camenzind came about 10 feet short of a homer, and down to their final out, Ava Kuszak delivered the game-winner to end Frahm’s night.
Petersen, her high school coach, wants to say for sure he knew Frahm was special. But that can be revisionist history.
“It’s one of those things you’re pretty sure she’s special,” he said.
That hindsight might also be true of Revelle’s insistence she never thought of pulling her ace. Yet again, given Frahm’s accolades, maybe it was truth all the way.