So look, no offense to the Big Red Spring Classic participants UNO and South Dakota State, but when you’ve been been playing the Texas, Texas Techs and Tennessees of the world – the only three teams ranked #1 at some point in the 2026 season- some run-rule wins are going to be expected on a weekend like this.
After strapping one on the Jackrabbits in Thursday’s nightcap, the Cornhuskers extended the same hospitality to UNO in their final game today, the last blow courtesy of a Samantha Bland bomb
over the left field wall. Sammie continued to show few ill effects in returning to the plate from a lead shoulder injury (she continued to play 3rd base while being DP’d for while recovering).
Bland went 3-for-4 on the day with a to-hot-to-handle single at the Mav pitcher and a double to the wall in left center to go with scoring 3 runs as well as her game-ending blast. Sammie has returned her #2 spot in the batting order, which she occupied through the Huskers 2025 post-season run when she and Jordy Frahm made life miserable for most opposing pitchers.
Also hot as a Carolina Reaper was Hannah Camenzind who finished the day a perfect 3-for-3 and also both ripped a double to left center and left the yard with a homer to right in the bottom of the 2nd inning bringing home Sammie after her double. Jordy Frahm got in on the fun by homering by way of a screaming line drive which cleared the fence just by enough to carom around the center field camera bird’s nest, which was abandoned by B1G+ for the day’s broadcast – wisely as it turned out.
The two combined for just over half of the Huskers 11 hits on the day – a feat they managed to accomplish while not recording a single strikeout. Recording strikeouts was not a problem for Alexis Jensen who came on to replace Camenzind in the 2nd inning getting Nebraska out of a 2-out jam. She pitched the remaining 4 innings, striking out 4 and recording her 8th win with conference play not even set to begin until next weekend. Her hitting continued to awaken as she ripped an RBI double of her own, her first extra-base hit of the season.
Big innings continue to define these Huskers as they put up 5 in the 2nd inning and 4 more in the 5th, an inning in which they batted around and appeared to have won the game as Frahm ripped a drive in the left-side hole which UNO’s 3rd baseman Bailey snagged. She yelled and spiked the ball simply for the joy of extending the game against their neighbors to the southwest.
But it was Sammie Bland’s bat which would have the last word.
In the top of the 6th, there was a scare as she dove to her left knocking aside a rip just inside the line and stayed down for a few moments. It was reminiscent of the original injury against Central Florida when she initially injured the shoulder. She worked it around some and – like against UCF – remained in the game to finish the inning.
But was the shoulder really okay? We would find out quickly as she was scheduled to lead off the bottom of the 6th.
After a few words with Hitting Coach Diane Miller, Sammie stepped into the batter’s box and took the 2-1 pitch high into the sunny skies of Lincoln and out. As she crossed the plate she tapped the shoulder brace she has been wearing. What was that? It turns out the brace has been an inside joke with Head Coach Rhonda Revelle since the injury. So that home run and the tap?
“Yeah, Coach Revelle is tapping it right out back at me. So we’re just saying, ‘it was the brace. It was the brace.’”
And is doesn’t take too much imagination to picture the smile as she told the story.
Conference play begins next weekend in Lincoln when Michigan comes to town for a 3-game set at Bowlin. The opener will be Friday evening at 5:30pm.
