Nebraska Baseball Sets Starting Pitchers for Opening Weekend at MLB Desert Invite

Will Bolt has announced his starting rotation for the Huskers' MLB Desert Invite.

Ty Horn will start Nebraska's first game of 2026. | Amarillo Mullen

Nebraska baseball is gearing up to get its 2026 season started.

After finishing 2025 with a 33-29 overall record, including a 15-15 Big Ten regular season mark, the Huskers aim to capitalize on last year's Big Ten Tournament title and NCAA Regional appearance with a hot start to their 2026 campaign. Coach Will Bolt addressed the media on Monday from Haymarket Park and announced his starting rotation for the Huskers' upcoming trip to Scottsdale, Ariz. for the MLB Desert Invitational.

The Huskers will open the season on Friday, battling UConn with returning starter Ty Horn leading off for Nebraska as its opening day pitcher. Nebraska will then turn to Carson Jasa to take the lead against Northeastern on Saturday, followed by Cooper Katskee against Grand Canyon on Sunday, and ending the invite on Monday, starting Gavin Blachowicz against Stanford.

Ty Horn went 4-4 over 18 appearances in 2025. | Amarillo Mullen

Horn's season-opening start is no surprise after the right-handed pitcher appeared in 18 contests last season for the Huskers with 17 starts, tying for the third-most starts in a season for a pitcher in Husker history. Horn would lead the team with 76 strikeouts in 85.2 innings and limited opposing batters to a .262 hitting percentage.

"I think his stuff is improved. He's obviously got experience and confidence that maybe he thought he had but didn't necessarily have at this time last year," Bolt said Monday. "The ability to command the ball has been a lot better. We've also seen the average fastball velocity jump a little bit for him as well."

Horn was a savior for Nebraska during the Big Ten Tournament last May, pitching eight shutout innings in the Big Ten Tournament title game while limiting No. 13 UCLA to three hits, six strikeouts, and three walks. The junior will be entering his third season with Nebraska after making 13 appearances in his first year in Lincoln.

Carson Jasa makes the opening weekend rotation. | Nebraska Athletics

Carson Jasa, another right-handed pitcher for the Big Red, made 11 appearances in 2025 while starting four games for the Huskers with a 2-2 record and 8.68 ERA. Jasa would finish 2025 with 24 strikeouts in 18.2 innings, while limiting hitters to a .237 batting average. The 6-7 redshirt sophomore redshirted his first season at Nebraska back in 2024 after being rated as the No. 9 overall prospect in Colorado out of Faith Christian Academy.

A newcomer to the Cornhuskers in 2026, Cooper Katskee arrives in Lincoln after stops with Miami (OH) and Indiana, spending two seasons in Bloomington after a prep career spent at Cherry Creek High School before transferring to Omaha Burke for his senior season. Katskee would appear in 13 games for the Hoosiers over two seasons, then earned Third-Team All-American honors and First-Team All-East Region recognition in his lone season for the RedHawks in 2025. The MAC Pitcher of the Year had 16 appearances and 10 starts, going 11-2 with a 3.08 ERA and three complete games, tying for the fourth most wins across Division I pitchers.

The final starter for the MLB Desert Invite goes to Gavin Blachowicz, a 6-4 right-handed pitcher from Olathe South High School who made 17 appearances for the Huskers in 2025. Blachowicz went 3-0 with a 3.80 ERA last season, striking out 22 hitters in 21.1 innings while limiting opposing batters to a .250 batting average. The No. 4 RHP in Kansas in 2023 will face the ACC's Stanford Cardinal after Stanford finished 27-25 last season, falling to Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament championship game.

Gavin Blachowicz did not record a loss last season. | Amarillo Mullen

Nebraska's pitching was tested at times in 2025 with some depth concerns, but Bolt stated Monday that he was more concerned about keeping his starters' workload lighter than previous campaigns.

"It's probably more of a pitch count and stressful pitches than it is innings," Bolt said. "I would hope that we can get all of our starters through five (innings) at least - maybe longer if they can keep their pitch count down."

"It's how many 25-pitch innings do you have. We've tried to keep them in that less than 20 pitches per inning mode this spring, just so we don't get any guys really stressed. That's where you kind of run into some things, when you have those really long innings... We'll probably be in that 90 to 100 pitch range," Bolt said.

Will Bolt begins his seventh season at the helm in Lincoln. | Amarillo Mullen

Nebraska baseball will open its 2026 season for the second consecutive year in Scottsdale, with its season-opening matchup against UConn beginning at 7 p.m. CST on the MLB Network. The Huskers then battle Northeastern at Sloan Park on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. CST on MLB.com, followed by a Sunday test with Grand Canyon at 6:30 p.m. Nebraska concludes its MLB Desert Invite at Salt River Fields with a 2 p.m. CST matchup with Stanford on MLB.com.

All contests will also be broadcasted across the Huskers Radio Network and its affiliate stations.

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