Alexis Jensen did not need any relief from Jordy Frahm on this cool but clear Friday night in Madison, however it wasn’t because it didn’t get a little weirdly difficult through no fault of her own.
Look, don’t get me wrong for one second – Lex has been the piece of the puzzle which was missing in the 2025 season which ended one step short of the goal in Knoxville last May. Is she the boost over that final step?
I’ll let that hang for now.
In a few of her last outings, she had struggled a little bit
late in games which prompted Coach Rhonda Revelle to bring on Jordy Frahm to shut the door – and in so doing, Jordy broke Revelle’s 40-year-plus single-season Huskers save record which now sits at 9 and counting.
So for this reason, I was really pulling for Jensen to finish this one off with no help from All-Americans on staff and close the door in Cheese World. She did. But, as I said, not without a li’l weirdness.
Jensen came into the bottom of the 7th carrying a 2-hit shutout and having retired 12 straight hitters. On a night where the Husker bats did what they had to without ever really taking off, Jensen let a few runners on early before clamping down on those stinking Badgers. And the oddness began in the final frame with the leadoff.
After a 2-2 pitch was fouled off, Jensen about bounced a pitch in front of the plate which Danielle Lucey swung at and didn’t come within two feet of. Jesse Farrell went to throw to first, Lucey came back to the plate, Farrell tagged her. From what I assumed was the home plate ump channeling his best C.B. Bucknor and ruling it a foul tip, Lucey stepped back up to the plate and struck out for the the second time, this time looking.
The next batter popped one up to the normally exceptionally-fielding Lauren Camenzind, who dropped it but recovered to zip it to Ava Kuszak at second for the force by a couple of feet. At this point, Wisconsin’s coach used a challenge – because why the hell not with one out in the 7th? – which was denied to her shrug and laughter, but not before viewers were subjected to approximately 248 Big Ten Network replays of an obvious force out.
Utterly tired of this happy horseshit, the freshman chose to strike out the final hitter and nail down her 16th victory as the #5 Huskers improved to 31-6.
So why did I spend that much space describing the 7th inning of a 5-0 game in which the trailing team barely threatened offensively? Probably because it took the Huskers bats so long to get going enough to pull away from a decent-hitting team whose bats never got going at all, but hung in there thanks to some gutsy pitching from senior pitcher Shelby Jacobsen who went the distance for the Badgers.
The Huskers remained scoreless until the bottom of the 3rd when Frahm flew one off the wall in left scoring Sammie Bland while never slowing down herself until she slid into third for a triple. She would score later after adding a double to her tally. Jesse Farrell an inning later would then belt a line drive you could’ve hung laundry on over the center field wall for a 2-0 lead.
Nebraska would add 3 more runs in the last two innings, mostly by just flying around the bases on infield hits. It was enough to send Jensen into that weird 7th with plenty of cushion and Jordy Frahm watching from first base ready but not needed on this cool Madison evening which had time enough for Ava to play with her stuffed cows cows in the dugout while enjoying her return to Madison with a hit, a stellar defensive play and a win.
The Huskers and badgers resume hostilities tomorrow at High Noon 12:00pm CST. Games will be streamed on B1G+ for the rest of the weekend and can always be enjoyed on Huskers Radio Network to the dulcet tones of Nate Rohr.
