OKLAHOMA CITY -- Ava Kuszak belted a game-winning home run in the 10th inning, lifting Nebraska to a 5-3 victory over Arkansas on Thursday night in the opening round of the Women's College World Series.
USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Jordy Frahm also tossed a career-high 10 innings, as Nebraska extended the nation's longest active winning streak to 27 victories.
The fourth-seeded Cornhuskers will face top-seeded Alabama on Saturday. The fifth-seeded Razorbacks will have to turn around and play No. 8 seed UCLA on Friday in an elimination game.
"An incredibly hard-fought battle," Nebraska coach Rhonda Revelle said. "Two teams out there playing to win, and nobody gave an inch. They battled. We battled."
In its first appearance, Arkansas was on the verge of its first WCWS win.
But down 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Nebraska's Hannah Coor hit a one-out, solo home run to center field.
Coor was standing on second base in the 10th when Kuszak came to the plate.
"Right when it hit her bat, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, we just won the freaking game,'" Coor said.
Initially, Kuszak wasn't so sure.
"I just threw my hands up hoping it was going out," she said. "Coming around third ... I was like, 'There's no way that just happened.'"
Nebraska's only other walk-off win at the WCWS came in 1982, a victory over Creighton in eight innings in the second game in WCWS history.
The Huskers had lost five straight WCWS games in extra innings and hadn't won any WCWS game in 24 years.
Now, they haven't lost in two months to the day.
"This team has developed the belief," Revelle said.
That was tested, especially after Frahm surrendered an RBI single to Ella McDowell in the top of the eighth inning.
Still, Revelle said she never hesitated about keeping in Frahm, who struck out nine and threw 133 pitches, nine off from tying her career high.
After McDowell's RBI, Frahm bounced back to retire eight of the next nine Arkansas batters, the only hit coming on an infield single.
"As the pitcher, you're just like, all right, let's do what we can to let someone on this team [win the game]," Frahm said. "Your greatest responsibility is to put the team in that position."
According to ESPN Research, Kuszak became the first player to hit a walk-off home run in the 10th inning or later at the WCWS since UCLA's Rachel Garcia did it in 2019 against Washington.
"It was a heck of a game," Arkansas coach Courtney Deifel said. "It was a big-time World Series game that we just weren't on the winning end of. ... We'll turn the page and get ready to fight our butts off."
