The Setting
Hawks Field at Haymarket Park. You know it, you love it. The home to the Husker baseball team (and independent Lincoln SaltDogs of the AAPB) since its opening in 2002. It has 4,419 chairs with seat backs, and an addition seating on outfield berms for a total of 8,600 capacity. The record crowd was 8,757 on April 14th, 2006 against Texas A&M and welcoming back head coach Rob Childress to Lincoln for the first time.
Haymarket will be hosting its 6th regional. It has also hosted 2 super regionals. Nebraska
has been on the winning end of 2 of the 5 previous regionals hosted here and both super regionals.
Haymarket can play big or small, being very dependent on the wind, generally in late spring early summer, it is more hitter friendly with winds tending to blow out to left or center field. A lot of team not used to playing on the plains can have issues with the swirling winds on foul pop ups.
Schedule
Friday, May 29th
- Game 1: 3pm CDT – No. 13 Nebraska vs. South Dakota State – ESPN+
- Game 2: 8pm – Arizona State vs. Ole Miss – ESPN2
Saturday, May 30th
- Game 3: 2pm – Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2
- Game 4: 7pm – Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2
Sunday, May 31st
- Game 5: 2pm – Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4
- Game 6: 7pm – Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5
Monday, June 1st
- Game 7 (if necessary): TBA – Rematch Game 6
Overview
The reward for hosting your first regional since 2008 is being given the only regional to have 3 ranked teams. Granted two will have to play each other first before getting to your beloved Huskers, but the gauntlet is unlike any other in the tournament.
Last year Nebraska was in maybe the best pitching regional, and while there are some good arms coming to Lincoln this weekend, this is much more offense oriented. Nebraska lives on doubles and the occasional home run, but the two powerhouse teams coming in both make a living on hitting 3 run bombs. The weather is going to be iffy, starting late Friday night with storms coming in. Those storms are projected to bring with them some steady 10-20 mph wins blowing in from right/center fields. The field playing smaller would make things interesting.
#1 Seed – Nebraska Cornhuskers
Record: 42-15
Conference: 2nd in Big Ten
Nebraska had one of their best regular seasons in the past 2 decades, doing things that hadn’t been done since the CWS teams of the mid 2000s. It was sparked by the first homestand in which they won 20 out of 21 games. They also went 23-1 at home, with the lone loss coming to regional host Kansas. The bats come alive at home and the pitchers seem to feed off of the crowds that are growing in numbers and setting records not seen in the Huskers’ Big Ten era.
Offense: This team has been one of the best hitting teams in the country all year, currently ranking 12 in the nation with a batting average of .312. The superstars in Dylan Carey and Mac Moyer have seen their averages drop over the past moth after hanging around .400 for the majority of the season, Carey sits at .342 and Moyer at .361. Moyer still led the conference in hits from the leadoff spot with 83, letting Carey lead the league in RBIs with 63. Case Sanderson has lifted his game recently, now leading the team with his .371 average, 17 doubles and .493 on base percentage.
Pitching/Defense: After being the absolute strength of the team over the past few years, pitching has been a bit of a rollercoaster. They fixed the top spot in the rotation with Carson Jasa having a year that has him climbing some record books. Gavin Blachowicz has been a solid member of the rotation. They’ve tried to figure out the best way to use Ty Horn. He struggled a bit as a starter, then was lights out as a reliever. They may want to use him multiple games over this weekend, so how will they set up their rotation is the big question.
The bullpen has been all over the place recently. J’Shawn Unger has been one of the best closers in the country, but getting to him has been an adventure. The team seemed to have an abundance of arms, especially left handers, they could trust in a mid season streak of winning 20 of 21 games. Tucker Timmerman seems to be the man lately, but he is going to need help if this team is to advance.
Defense has been rock solid this season. Led by Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Carey at short stop and All Defensive Team Moyer in center field, not only is the team great at not making mistakes, a fielding percentage of .985 (#3 in the nation), but can also make the spectacular plays to kill off doubles and triples.
#2 Seed – Mississippi Rebels
Record: 36-21
Conference: 9th in SEC
A program a couple of the NU seniors faced in Minnesota in 2023 is coming to Lincoln. It started out very promising as true freshman Caleb Clark struck out the 15th overall pick in the MLB draft to lead off the game. Clark only recorded one more out while giving up 8 runs in the 14-5 loss. That team actually ended up having a horrendous year in the SEC, while the 2026 version finished .500 in conference, but had a losing record on the road or at neutral sites.
Offense: 100 home runs. These guys have come to Lincoln with the intention of putting a few balls over the fence. They put a lot of energy into trying to mash that they strike out A LOT!!! Tony Gwynn is rolling over in his grave. Nebraska started to strike out more down the stretch, and struck out 461 times. Ole Miss has struck out 589 times in 2026.
Right Fielder Tristan Bissetta and third baseman Judd Utermark often hit back to back in the lineup, and each have 20 home runs and 10 doubles on the year. Oh and if you happen to make it through them, you have Will Furniss (yes, his dad is Eddy) and his .315 avg and 7 home runs to back them up. That group is going to take their hacks though. Each has over 50 strikeouts on the year.
Defense/Pitching: This is the team that really has a wealth of arm talent upwards of 7 guys can touch 97 mph. This is the deepest of the staffs in the regional. They possess a lot of swing and miss stuff. However, most of their guys are throwers and not pitchers. They are tossing their best stuff and hoping it finds the zone or someone happens to swing at it. Cade Townsend is the undoubted ace of the staff, but Taylor Rabe has been the best over the last two months. Nebraska could see him if both teams meet on Saturday. He has 81 strikeouts, and only 8 walks in 57.1 innings.
The defense can be leaky at times. They have a .973 fielding percentage on the season, 119th in the country.
#3 Seed – Arizona State Sun Devils
Record: 37-19
Conference: 3rd in Big XII
How many ranked teams were inserted as 3 seeds? One. Arizona State. They’ve had a fairly consistent season, with only series losses to #9 West Virginia and Oklahoma State. They played a weekend multi-team event at Globe Life Field the week after Nebraska and were 0-3 against SEC teams. Beyond those 3 weekends, they’ve been methodically winning 2 of 3 against nearly everyone. They’ve played a common opponent to Nebraska in 9 games, going 8-1 against Omaha, Kansas St, UConn, and GCU.
Offense: Oh, you thought 100 home runs was a lot? How does 108 sound? The regional of the home runs continues with the Sun Devils. The boast 4 players that not only have 16 home runs or more, but they all also have averages of .319 or higher.
We saw some big time ASU bats come to Lincoln late in 2019. None of them had a season like Landon Hairston has put together this year. His nickname “Harry Bonds” is a reference to the top baseball alum of the Sun Devils, and he’s lived up to it. A record 28 home runs to go along with a .413 average is going to be a problem for pitchers in Lincoln. .897 is a good OPS for a lot of players. That is just Hairston’s slugging percentage. His OPS is a ridiculous 1.415.
Pitching/Defense: While not the greatest overall staff, the top end talent has some incredible swing and miss stuff. Cole Carlon is slotted to be a first round pick, maybe in the top 20-25. He will hit 100 mph with his fastball, and backs it up with a slower mid-80s slider with a lot of late break on it. Luckily for Nebraska, he will go against Ole Miss on Friday night. But if you need a reason to stick around after the Nebraska game a Carlon vs Cade Townsend matchup of future first rounders on the mound is something you don’t get to see in a regional often.
The Arizona State defense is a really good one, with a .976 fielding percentage on the year, good for 58th in the country.
#4 Seed – South Dakota State Jackrabbits
Record: 24-31
Conference: 3rd in Summit League
A run through the Summit League Tournament like no other! Only 4 of the 6 Summit League teams qualify for the conference tournament, and SDSU clinched it by just a few games. They had a losing overall record, and losing conference record, but had their starting rotation come up big in the tournament. The Jacks beat top seed Oral Roberts (who ran away with the regular season title) 2 out of 3 times, and added a win over 3 seed Northern Colorado top clinch the automatic bid for the Road to Omaha.
Offense: The outlier in the home run regional is the Jacks. They hit only 45 on the year. There isn’t any one category that stands out for SDSU. They have a very patient approach, trying to up the pitch count of the starting pitcher to get to the bullpen. This leads to a lot of walks, but also a lot of strikeouts. It almost works on Nebraska in their one battle with Nebraska. They got starter Pryce Bender out of the game and then almost as a switch flipped, went to work on the pen and Nebraska escaped with a 5-4 victory.
Sophomore third baseman Nolan Grawe has been the team’s best bat since arriving on campus. He leads the team with a .315 average, 18 doubles and 5 triples, while adding 7 home runs. Junior DH/INF Luke Luskey has the best power of the Jacks, having been a conference leader in home runs over the last 2 seasons.
Pitching/Defense: You have to imagine the team that scored the most runs in the conference, yet had a losing record, must have given up a ton of runs themselves. And you would be right. Friday night starter Sam Schlecht looks the part at 6’6” 230 lbs. He has a 5.88 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 72 innings. Nebraska native Sam Novotny was the Saturday starter. He has a 7.67 ERA and 49 strikeouts in 63 innings. Most of the bullpen guys that are heavy contributors have ERAs of 5.50 or higher.
The SDSU defense is good at .975 fielding percentage, good for 73rd in the country. Where they are vulnerable is on the base paths. Teams have been very successful running on the pitchers and catchers.
