If your type of player is the one who looks like her momma had to yell for several minutes before she would come in for dinner? And then have her face fall when she realized both would be even later to the table because she was covered in dirt from head to toe?
Then, folks, Samantha Bland is your girl.
Watching her in action for close to three years, the only season her uniform wasn’t scarlet, cream and brown was her freshman year when she was called to action early to take left field duties after
Abbie Squier was lost to a season-ending injury. In 2024, she had a little less brown and a few more grass stains.
Since then, after assuming third base duties, dirt has fully been a part of her Husker unis and we can only imagine how much extra time the team’s equipment manager has had to put in getting her togs clean for upcoming games.
I was away in Maryland and originally looking to write a piece on her about three weeks ago during the Big 10 Conference Tournament where she made the all-tourney team after bringing home 2nd-Team All-Big 10 honors. I kept putting it off a little after finally deciding to write it up after the Arkansas game, win, lose or draw.
Dumb luck hits us all sometimes, doesn’t it?
Against the Razorbacks, Sammie was 2-for-4 at the plate, knocking in the Huskers’ first run of the game and then stealing second as Nebraska ended up tying things up 2-2 on their way to the 5-3 win in 11 innings.
And in the field, she cleanly fielded three grounders using her cannon arm to nick Arkansas runners twice. She also made a diving stab of a low line drive to prevent further Razorback damage early and help keep things even until Ava Kuszak blasted the 2-run walk-off to the center field bleachers for the winner. The homer cemented a win for Jordy Frahm who threw 10 complete innings on the evening.
The Huskers would make ESPN Sportscenter’s Top 10 Plays of the Day, but it wouldn’t be Kuszak or Frahm appearing on the Worldwide Leader (and SEC shill) late that night.
It was Bland who was immortalized on that 3rd inning diving effort. A few more times in the dirt both in the field and on the base paths and Sammie had made some more fans to go along with one of her top ones, Head Coach Rhonda Revelle who does not seem to tire of Bland keeping her team out of trouble by closing the third base area to visitors.
The opposite happens when she is on the base paths where Revelle loves her penchant for creating chaos. One of the best examples was in Minneapolis when Bella Bacon was batting and suddenly ran for first convinced she had been nicked by a pitch. While confusion reigned, Sammie took off and stole second.
The result? A challenge showed Bacon hadn’t been hit, but since the ump never called that, it was a live ball, so stolen base it was, too bad, so sad, and shortly thereafter, Bacon knocked Bland home.
I can’t remember, but I bet she slid.
Bland also plays like she simply enjoys the game, the dirtier, the better, I’m sure. And enjoy them she has since college softball’s Big Dance started. Beginning with the regionals through the Arkansas game, she is batting .522 with 3 doubles, an RBI, 5 runs, 3 stolen bases and an OB% of .593. She has always been a streaky hitter, but not necessarily one who has trouble spotting her pitch – a 2-for-13 run will probably include 3-5 line drives shot right at someone.
And, as far as enjoying the game, it’s become a Corn Nation thing of mine to post what I’ve come to think of the Sammie Slaps, her lineup announcement trip through the teammate line – here they were at Stillwater in the opening game of the Oklahoma road series:
I happened to meet Bland’s mother and father and other family members in Seattle before the final game against Washington. I asked her mother about the handshakes, high fives and different dances for each teammate. Her response was to laugh and say, “I don’t know how she remembers them all.”
Her parents were wonderful.
Sam will likely already have been introduced, slapped her way down the line and giving Alabama her best by the time this publishes. And if it’s past the first or second inning, I’ll bet there’s a smudge or two on her scarlet and cream.
