No. 21 Nebraska softball broke the team’s single-season home run record as the Huskers cruised to a 8-2 win over Creighton Wednesday night at Bowlin Stadium. Samantha Bland’s three-run homer in the second inning was Nebraska’s 77th of the season, surpassing the 2022 Cornhuskers for most home runs in a season. Back-to-back home runs by Ava Bredwell and Ava Kuszak in the sixth pushed the total to 79 for the season.
Nebraska took the lead in the second. Hannah Camenzind was at first base when Kacie Hoffmann hit a sinking liner to shallow center field. As the centerfielder Ella Dalton dove for the ball and missed it, Camenzind circled the bases from first to score to get NU on the board. Hoffmann stopped at second on the play, then scored two batters later, when Emmerson Cope bounced a single up the middle.
In the second, Kuszak led off with a double. Lauren Camenzind followed with a single up the middle, scoring Kuszak. After Jordy Bahl singled up the middle, Bland lofted the record-breaking home run over the left-field fence, boosting the Huskers’ lead to 6-0. The Bluejays finally responded in the top of the fifth, when Lily West hit a two-out home run to left. But in the bottom of the fifth, Bredwell and Kuszak answered with back-to-back homers in the fifth, the sixth time this season two Nebraska hitters have hit back-to-back home runs. Creighton scored one in the seventh, but came no closer.
Bahl (16-4) earned the win in the circle, allowing one earned run and five hits in six innings. Abby Rusher (1-2) took the loss in her first start of the season. She surrendered six runs, all earned, in just over an inning of work. West paced the Bluejays offense, hitting 3-for-4 with a home run, a triple and an RBI. All nine Husker starters reached base, with Kuszak leading the offense by hitting 2-for-2 with a double, a home run and an RBI.
Nebraska is next in action Saturday to take on Northwestern in Evanston, Ill. The Wildcats are in a three-way tie with Oregon and UCLA for the lead in the Big Ten standings with a 9-1 league, 1.5 games ahead of the Huskers, who are currently in fifth, percentage points behind Washington.