Jordy Bahl reveals when her desire to return closer to home began

A Nebraska native, star pitcher Jordy Bahl first chalked up her initial college home sickness to what most freshmen do: Being a freshman. Pitching for a preeminent program at Oklahoma, Bahl sublimated the yearning for home, telling herself that it was just a fact of first-year college life.

But after a sophomore season where Bahl and the Sooners won another national title — their third straight — the star pitcher still felt a pull back home. Speaking to reporters after transferring to Nebraska following the 2023 season, Bahl explained how the feeling nagged at her.

“I’ve always been a big homebody. And so even my freshman year, I had pretty strong feelings of homesickness, but every freshman does. So I was just like, ‘Every freshman’s going to be homesick.’ But then my second year, instead of those feelings going away, they continued to worsen and so that’s I guess when I just started knowing that my heart was always at home,” Bahl said.

Bahl, who grew up in Papillion, Nebraska, an Omaha suburb nestled on the southern edge of the city, brings to the Nebraska program a level of star power not many teams have.

In two collegiate seasons, Bahl established herself as arguably the best pitcher in the sport, dominating opponents from the circle while also being a base running threat, among other abilities.

In 46 starts at Oklahoma, Bahl posted a 44-2 record and a 1.00 earned run average. She threw 26 complete games and 15 shutouts. In her freshman season alone, she set the Oklahoma single-game strikeout record with 16 in a game and also threw a perfect game and a no-hitter.

Leaving Oklahoma for Nebraska wasn’t an easy call to make, necessarily

Bahl was asked about the emotions of her transfer process, dating back to June 8 when Oklahoma officially three-peated. The high of celebrating with teammates over the next few days came crashing down when she had to break the news of leaving Norman.

“It was a week of a lot of highs and also some low feelings,” Bahl said. “It was hard to leave what has been so great the last two years as far as the people and everything. You come off of winning a national championship and going to Toby Keith’s and hanging out with him afterward, which was pretty cool. Then you have to break it to your teammates and your coaches that you’ve decided to make the decision to come home. So, that was kind of sad.”