There was no grand announcement at Bowlin Stadium. There was no booming voice over the public address microphone announcing the starting lineups for Nebraska softball in the Huskers’ first fall Scarlet and Cream scrimmage of the autumn slate. No, beloved Nebraska star pitcher Jordy Bahl made her unofficial return to the plate and the circle with little fanfare — precisely 250 days, or eight months and change, after she sustained her ACL injury — in a surprise to those outside the softball facility.
The original timeline to get her back in the circle was, optimistically, late October. But yet here she is, throwing five full innings with a pitch count of 50-60 on Oct. 9.
How in the world? That feels simply unbelievable and incredible all at once. “It’s a blessing,” Bahl said Wednesday. “We have a great athletic training staff.
We always hear about the athlete putting the time into rehab, but there’s so many people that go into that besides just the athlete. I wouldn’t be able to be out here competing this fall without everybody at the university, especially Marcia (LaCroix), our trainer, putting that time in. People are also reading.
.. “So I credit that to hard work by the athlete, but hard work by so many others pouring in as well.
” Bahl felt good in her first public time throwing, but she’d had Wednesday circled for a few weeks. And she had thrown a few times live before Nebraska’s first scrimmage. In her five innings in the circle, she threw 57 pitc.