Guest Commentary: Nate Rohr, Voice of the Huskers

Seniors form backbone of NU Softball
The backbone of any bat-and-ball sport team is the players up the middle. The backbone of any college sports team is its seniors. Assuming those two statements are true, then the 2016 Huskers are built on a talented, experienced base that has seen and done almost everything at the college level.

Center fielder Kiki Stokes, shortstop Alicia Armstrong, pitcher Emily Lockman, along with first baseman Dawna Tyson and four-year team captain Mattie Fowler enter this season having started a combined 652 games at Nebraska. They’ve played in Oklahoma City at the WCWS and seen their season end short of the NCAA Tournament. Each has battled injuries or on-field struggles during her career. 

When four of these five seniors came to Nebraska in the fall of 2012 (Fowler was already in the program, then “joined” this senior class after taking a medical redshirt in 2014), they came to a Husker program that had just missed regionals and had lost a big senior class that included Ashley Hagemann, who had thrown the vast majority of the innings the year before.

While talented players like Brooke Thomason, Taylor Edwards and Tatum Edwards remained, the Nebraska softball program was in dire need of these freshmen to make contributions, from the moment they arrived on campus. Just look at the starting lineup for the season opener in 2013. Five of the 10 starters, including the pitcher, second baseman, shortstop and center fielder, were all freshmen.

These freshmen had the spotlight on them early, and usually delivered. Stokes got off to a hot start at the plate. Lockman started two of the biggest games of the season and won them: the second game of the Oklahoma doubleheader, a win over the eventual national champion, and the third game of the Super Regional at Oregon, her first NCAA Tournament appearance, the win that sent the Huskers to Oklahoma City. Armstrong provided a tough, steady presence at shortstop. Tyson provided a dangerous power bat, while Fowler was a strong voice of leadership, even in her second year in the program.

But even with early success, they’ve all battled adversity. Stokes’ production at the plate dipped, briefly dropping her from the batting order as a freshman (more on that later in this blog) and down in the order as a sophomore. Armstrong has perpetually battled a back injury that literally brought her to her knees as a sophomore in the Super Regional at Alabama. After two exceptional years, Lockman struggled in her first few weeks last year, before settling in to earn All-Big Ten honors. Fowler has fought back from two knee injuries, while she and Tyson have battled for playing time and the starting nod at first base.

In short, they’ve seen and done almost everything. They’ve won a conference championship and two regional championships. They took this program to Oklahoma City for the first time in 11 years and knocked off the No. 1 team in the country. They’ve also fought through slow starts both to regular seasons (last year’s 8-10 start) and conference play (1-3 in Big Ten play to start 2014, before winning the conference championship). This group of experienced, talented seniors will draw upon all that experience to hopefully check one more accomplishment off the list: Get back to Oklahoma City for the WCWS and win at least one game.

Stokes looking to build on All-America season
One of those seniors we mentioned is Kiki Stokes, who is coming off a breakout, All-America season last year. Stokes came to Nebraska with all sorts of hype, a three-time high school All-American with a career .605 average and 87 stolen bases, both records at Olathe East High School, one of the best high school programs in the area.

Early on, it seemed Stokes was almost as good as advertised. She hit .366 in February, reaching base in each of her first 13 games at NU. But Stokes’ hot start fizzled. In Big Ten play, she hit just .184 with 12 strikeouts. As the Huskers made their run through the NCAA Tournament to the Women’s College World Series, Stokes was held out of the batting order in seven of eight games, though her speed and glove kept her in the lineup in the flex spot.

Her struggles continued through her sophomore season. With a month to go in the season, Stokes was hitting just .255 as Nebraska traveled to Illinois to take on the Fighting Illini. She was dropped from the leadoff spot, a spot I thought she’d own her entire career at Nebraska. Stokes started to find her way, and as she describes here, a few weeks later at Michigan State, she felt as if she’d turned a corner and figured out how to prepare to hit at the college level (By the way, we’ll have this whole interview with Kiki between games on Saturday).

Stokes salvaged her sophomore year, finishing with a .317 average in Big Ten play while helping the Huskers to the conference championship. She was even better in the NCAA Tournament, hitting 6-for-14 while driving in seven runs, five in the two regional final games as Nebraska finished their comeback through the elimination bracket and beat Missouri in Columbia to capture the regional championship.

That set the stage for last year’s dynamic season. She was one of six players nationally with 10 home runs and five triples, a testament to both her power and speed. She started hot (.511 batting average, six home runs in February) and stayed hot (combined 9-for-22 at the Big Ten and NCAA Regional tournaments). She did all that while covering lots of ground in center field. In June, she was honored as an All-American.

Stokes’ career is a testament to the adjustment that even the most talented players have to make when jumping from the high school to the college levels. To her credit, she continued to work hard, eventually found her way, and became the versatile force that we all hoped to see when she signed on at Nebraska.

Welcome back….everyone
Stokes is one of a bevy of All-Americans returning for their respective teams. Of the 55 players who earned All-America status from the NFCA last year, 42 of them (76%) return. It isn’t just the super-elite players who are back, either. Look at the 8 WCWS teams, all of whom are in the top eight to start this season. Usually, you could accuse the coaches of being lazy with the rankings. But when seven of the eight teams return at least six hitters from last year’s team, and all eight return at least two of their top three pitchers, it’s clear those teams will be back in the mix. In all, 75% of the offensive starters for last year’s WCWS teams and 76% of the regular pitchers are back for the eight that made it to OKC.

A note or two on the schedule
Considering the experience on this year’s team, it’s not surprising that Rhonda Revelle and this staff drew up a tough schedule. Not only are the Huskers facing the favorites to win the SEC (Florida, which has won the last two national championships), Pac-12 (Oregon), Big Ten (Michigan) and Big 12 (Oklahoma), Nebraska is also taking on James Madison, which was a national seed and hosted a regional last year, and North Carolina State, which won that regional.

Add that to a schedule that includes perennial Pac-12 powers Arizona State and Washington, along with Louisville, and the top four teams in the Big Ten (Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern and Ohio state), and this schedule will give us a clear idea of where the Huskers stack up in the conference and nationally.

That’s all for now…we’ll talk to you tomorrow under the big top in Cedar Falls!

Go Big Red!

Nate