Two in-state conference champions competing in NCAA Baseball Tournament Friday
By Aaron Bonderson 
, Reporter/Producer Nebraska Public Media
May 29, 2025, 1:50 p.m. ·
Two in-state schools aim to advance in the NCAA Baseball Tournament with regional play starting up Friday.
Big Ten tournament champion and No. 3 seed Nebraska will compete against No. 2 seed Oklahoma. The Sooners have a 35-20 overall record. They finished 12th in the Southeastern Conference regular season with a 14-16 league record. That regional is hosted by No. 5 national seed and Atlantic Coast Conference champion North Carolina.
First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m. central time Friday.
The Huskers are seeking the school’s first regional championship since 2005, which is also the last time NU made the College World Series in Omaha.
The Cornhuskers are 32-27 on the season and have won 13 of their last 17 contests, including rattling off four consecutive victories in the Big Ten Tournament. NU is 9-13 against teams in the NCAA Tournament field this year.
Last season, Nebraska went 1-2 in a regional hosted by Oklahoma State.
No. 3 seed and Big East champion, the Creighton Bluejays, will compete in a regional hosted by No. 3 national seed Arkansas. The Bluejays start their postseason march in head coach Ed Servais’ final season against No. 2 seed Kansas at 7 p.m. Central on Friday. Servais is set to retire this year after 22 seasons leading the Bluejay program. He’s the school’s all-time wins leader with 719.
Nebraska Public Media News spoke with Ed Servais last week before the start of the Big East Tournament about his legacy.
Creighton enters the NCAA Tournament on a seven-game winning streak. The school has also won 21 of its last 23 games. Servais’s ballclub is 5-3 vs. NCAA Tournament teams this season. This year’s tournament marks Servais’ sixth appearance in the big dance, where he has an overall 9-10 record.
The Bluejays haven’t advanced out of the regional round since 1991, when they earned a spot in the College World Series semifinals. In the school’s most recent NCAA Tournament appearance in 2019, Creighton went 3-2, falling in a winner-take-all regional final matchup with Michigan. The Wolverines ended that season as national runner-up.
Both games Friday will be streamed on ESPN+.