Big Ten Preview: Hoosiers and Jordy Bahl’s Huskers Lead Pack Eager to Unseat Northwestern
Northwestern is the team to beat in the Big Ten. Nebraska's Jordy Bahl and Indiana's Brianna Copeland may be the stars capable of doing it.
Big Ten Preview: Hoosiers and Jordy Bahl's Huskers Lead Pack Eager to Unseat Northwestern
by Graham Hays, D1Softball.com
Jordy Bahl arrives and the rest of the Big Ten pitching corps scatters? All right, the timing is a coincidence. But whether it’s the sport’s highest profile new arrival at Nebraska or a mass exodus of proven aces who ran out of eligibility, pitching is the Big Ten story in 2024. Because there are a whole bunch of heavy hitters in this conference, and someone has to get them out if a team wants to win the final title before Oregon, UCLA and Washington come to town.
Projected Standings
1. Nebraska
2. Indiana
3. Northwestern
4. Minnesota
5. Ohio State
6. Michigan
7. Maryland
8. Illinois
9. Wisconsin
10. Rutgers
11. Penn State
12. Purdue
13. Iowa
14. Michigan State
Preseason Player of the Year
Brianna Copeland, Indiana
Preseason Pitcher of the Year
Jordy Bahl, Nebraska
Preseason Freshman of the Year
Jessica Conway, Michigan
Preseason Player Rankings
1. Jordy Bahl, Nebraska (P)
2. Brianna Copeland, Indiana (P/DP)
3. Billie Andrews, Nebraska (SS)
4. Lauren Derkowski, Michigan (P)
5. Melina Wilkison, Ohio State (OF)
6. Taylor Minnick, Indiana (OF/DP)
7. Kyleigh Sand, Rutgers (SS)
8. Taylor Krapf, Minnesota (C)
9. Jess Oakland, Minnesota (SS)
10. Payton Lincavage, Rutgers (3B)
11. Courtney Wyche, Maryland (P)
12. Cora Bassett, Indiana (UT)
13. Sam Hackenbracht, Ohio State (C)
14. Jaeda McFarland, Maryland (OF)
15. Kansas Robinson, Northwestern (IF)
16. Katelyn Caneda, Nebraska (2B)
17. Hannah Cady, Northwestern (IF)
18. Brooke Andrews, Nebraska (OF)
19. Kelly Ryono, Illinois (OF)
20. Kami Kortokrax, Ohio State (SS)
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TEAMS TO BEAT
Indiana: There’s no escaping thoughts of what might have been. With Taryn Kern, the Hoosiers would have a strong case as preseason favorites (they likely feel they still do). But it says something about the state of the once middling program that Indiana’s hopes aren’t sunk despite losing a generational talent.
That starts with Brianna Copeland, as good a bet as anyone to be the season’s breakout star. In terms of production, she already broke out. Kern’s otherworldly power just took the headlines. Only 25 players had a better WAR a season ago than Copeland, who had a 1.081 OPS and hit 15 doubles and 14 home runs,—while also going 22-4 record with a 3.06 ERA in the circle. If a small dip in conference pitching productivity was just part of the learning curve (and one bad outing against Nebraska skewed the numbers), look out.
Copeland and Heather Johnson won’t need to be perfect. Kern is gone, but the other five Hoosiers who had at least 90 total bases return: Cora Bassett, Copeland, Taylor Minnick, Avery Parker and Sarah Stone. Only three-time All-Big-Ten honoree Bassett won’t be around in 2025, too. There’s still power (the Hoosiers would have ranked third among Big Ten teams in HR without Kern), and as long as head coach Shonda Stanton is around, there’s always the running game.
Nebraska: I've already leaned on the Caitlin Clark comparison for one of Jordy Bahl' former teammates. But in terms of making a program the center of attention in a way it hasn't been n a very long time, Bahl -- no slouch on the basketball court, by the way -- is an equally apt parallel.
No individual storyline in college softball is bigger than Bahl returning home after winning two national championships at Oklahoma and establishing herself as the most electric pitching talent in the game. Even in this day and age of pitching workloads, one pitcher can still exert the sort of control over an entire season that is rarely found in other sports. And Nebraska now has one of those pitchers.
Bahl doesn't have Oklahoma's lineup behind her anymore, but the Huskers ranked 25th in Division I in slugging percentage and in the top 50 in weighted on-base -- which measures the value of how players reach base. To borrow another basketball comparison, this isn't Elena Delle Donne going home to carry mid-major Delaware on her shoulders. With most of the lineup intact, Bahl has championship-caliber run support around her, at the very least in terms of the conference title race.
Northwestern:
It wasn’t the most notable transfer in the conference, but Ashley Miller’s move from East Lansing to Evanston is among the most intriguing. Miller was excellent her first two seasons at Michigan State and might have been the nation’s most underrated pitcher in 2022, when a 14-17 record belied a 1.81 ERA and 244 strikeouts in 193.1 innings. But last season was a wash, as she missed time and finished with a 4.22 ERA. The Wildcats know something about aces willing to pitch through things after Danielle Williams masterfully gutted out her final season and nearly got the team back to the World Series. If Michelle Gascoigne can help Miller recapture past form, with plenty of other arms around to share the burden, Northwestern’s succession plan might fare better than anyone could have imagined possible.
In fact, the Wildcats may have more trouble replacing runs than innings. The cupboard isn’t bare without Jordyn Rudd, Skyler Shellmyer and others, but it needs restocking. Isabel Cunnea, Renae Cunningham, Ainsley Muno and Emma Raye headline a large, well-regarded freshman class with distinctly Midwestern roots, so competition for at-bats shouldn’t be a problem. If the newcomers grow quickly and if sophomores like Kansas Robinson and Kelsey Nader build on their impressive debuts, the new era will have runs.
