Story and photos by Jeff Kurrus
In softball, pitchers throw from “the circle.” It’s where the game is won or lost. And on the softball field, Nebraska native Jordy Bahl, the 2025 National Fastpitch Coaches Association Player of the Year, commands the circle like no other. But it’s not her most important circle.
Jordy, originally from Papillion, is a three-time All-American and a two-time national champion with the University of Oklahoma. After winning the second of those titles during her sophomore year with the Sooners in 2023, she decided to come home, and transferred to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In the months that followed, she convinced a host of childhood teammates to play alongside her with the Huskers. In 2024, when expectations for the softball program were perhaps as high as they have ever been, she tore the ACL in her left knee in the Huskers’ first game. Her season was over before it began.
But because of the words that are so often used to describe her — tenacious, fierce, competitive, driven — fans knew her comeback would be epic. And it was. Not only did her stellar pitching return after the injury, Nebraska head coach Rhonda Revelle and her staff allowed Jordy to hit as well, a rare double-dip in college softball where pitchers usually just pitch. She solidified Revelle’s decision by becoming one of the nation’s best hitters, leading the Cornhuskers within one game of their first College World Series appearance since 2013.
It is in the softball circle where Jordy appears the most comfortable. That is until you see her don a hunting vest and, with a shotgun in hand, walk next to family in hopes of seeing a rooster pheasant flush.
Off the softball field, Jordy’s family is her circle. They are her comfort, peace and the ground beneath her feet.
The Circle
The scene was a familiar one in Nebraska each fall. On this day in Otoe County, the line of upland hunters clad in orange with guns in hand consisted of Jordy; her dad, Dave; two of her brothers, Hayden and Broden; and her soon-to-be husband, Trey Frahm.
In front of the group, Dave’s Labrador retriever, Jessie, weaved left and right across the line, a dog well-versed in his job of flushing birds. Meanwhile, Jordy’s black Lab, Remi, had to be ushered back to her job more than once.
“J, if you’re not going to work this dog,” Dave called out, “we’re going to have to get her with grandpa.”
Jordy didn’t respond. How could she? As one of Nebraska’s most popular athletes, downtime for other pursuits — even dog training — is nearly nonexistent.
Two summers ago, when Jordy announced her return to Nebraska, the decision was reported by every major sporting news outlet in the country. Since then, she’s become a folk hero of sorts. While she has continued to field countless interviews from the likes of ESPN, Sports Illustrated and other titans of sports media, she would also show up at a local Sunday night Fellowship of Christian Athletes event in places like Gretna to talk about her relationship with God.
One might think the 23-year-old carries a little weight on her shoulders.
But in that pheasant field that day, while walking through a patch of standing milo, the only weights she carried were the semi-automatic shotgun in her hands, and the thought that she should have found a bit more time to work Remi before the hunting season began.
A Weight Lifted
“This is why,” Jordy said when asked about her decision to return to Nebraska. “This” was sitting in the cabin of family friend, Barry Brandt, and watching a Husker football game alongside her family after the pheasant hunt. She soaked in the conversations filtering through the room while everyone downed burgers and drinks from Runza. “This is where I realize that all of that other stuff — the softball — it doesn’t matter.”
Jordy’s softball success came early, garnering attention from universities nationwide during her high school years. But she felt different off the field. “I internalized a ton in high school,” she said. “I was very alone.”
She got involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, where she developed her relationship with God, and her anxiety improved. “I began to seek a greater purpose than softball,” she said. “That’s where my identity and purpose were. But with this platform [softball], I could give back to Him.”
During these years, Jordy bounced between church, the softball field and nature — with her family always nearby.
But her relationship with nature had begun long before. Dave had taken Jordy and her brothers hunting and fishing since they were little.
“I was there when Broden shot his first deer, a doe, and his first buck,” Jordy said. She has also harvested multiple deer through the years, but squeezing the trigger is not her favorite part of deer hunting. “I love being able to sit down outside in the middle of nowhere, with no one but my family knowing where I am.”
When she moved to Norman for college, that part of her life was no longer there. Feeling that separation during spring break her freshman year — in between two-a-day softball workouts — she got a tattoo: an outline of her home state on her right arm.
While grasping for any sort of connection she could muster, pressure and success at Oklahoma were at an all-time high. “And with the success,” Jordy said, “there came more expectation.”
During her sophomore year, while the rest of the athletic world was singing her praises, she was once again lost. She was hanging on every word her coaches said and, believe it or not, fearful of messing up and never seeing the field again.
“That fall, I got very far away from God,” she said. “I had shame. Doubt. Negative thoughts. Loneliness. My prayer life had gone to a minimum. I didn’t have light, but I wasn’t looking for light either.”
Going home was at the forefront of her mind.
Home
Days after the Sooners won the 2023 national championship, Jordy announced she was transferring to Nebraska.
Home has so many layers for her. There, she can listen to her dad tease her about Remi, and remind herself to watch a sunrise or sunset, just like she has been doing for so many years.
It’s where she can visit the same pitching coach — Darren Dubsky — she has had since she was 8 years old. To this day, whenever she needs a few words of encouragement, she knows he will be there.
Playing for the Huskers, she is again teammates with friends from her childhood — Bella Bacon, Ava Kuszak and others.
Nebraska is where she gets to be part of the day-to-day life of her family. Because the story of Jordy Bahl has never been all about her.
Let’s Go!
“Let’s go!” Jordy screamed. Her body rocked back and forth, and she was biting her nails as if she lived and died on every play.
Yet she was nowhere near a softball field. And there weren’t thousands of fans living on every one of her swings.
Instead, she was living on every dribble her brother, Bryson, then a high school basketball player, took.
Bryson was in a dogfight on the hardwood and Jordy, like all of the fans packed in the arena, was holding her breath with each three-pointer that left her brother’s hands.
Back in the pheasant field, Jordy had a similar feeling not 30 minutes after her dad questioned Remi’s training regimen during that Otoe County pheasant hunt. A rooster had flushed in front of the group as Jordy and Trey took a shot. The pheasant went down, but his head was upright as he fell into the tall grass. The bird would be on the move. Remi bolted, bounding toward the mark and disappearing as Jordy held out hope.
Her brothers and dad stopped mid-stride, ready to heckle her if Remi returned empty-handed.
Trey called out, “She’s coming back!”
A moment later, Jordy shouted: “She’s got the bird!” A smile covered her entire face before cutting her eyes toward her dad, who couldn’t help but grin.
Better Than a Tattoo
Now that Jordy has this dog training thing figured out, she might want a cat. On nights when her schedule is clear, she wants to do nothing but lie around. “I’m a big homebody,” she said.
While the rest of the world wants her to play softball for the next 15 years, Jordy, recently married but still just a college kid, doesn’t yet know what her future holds. She might teach. She might coach. “But I don’t want to leave Nebraska to do it,” she said.
Actually being home is better than a tattoo. It is where she can stand in the circle in front of a packed house of screaming fans, knowing the ones that matter most, the ones in her circle, will be there long after the game is over.