Nebraska held off South Dakota to win the Midwest region, but most of the talk centered around center fielder Braden Dyer. Early in the game, Braden took a pitch straight to the right elbow. It hit hard, right on the bone, and clearly hurt. He stayed in the game anyway, advanced to third on a wild sequence that included a double steal, and later tried to bat despite barely being able to grip the bat with his right hand. The team was out of subs, so the coach asked him to gut it out. Braden tried to bunt and nearly dropped a perfect one but was just barely thrown out by the pitcher.
As the game went on, Nebraska shifted Braden to left field to ease the strain on his arm. He played through it and even fielded a key ball late in the game, flipping it to the shortstop because he couldn’t throw. Only then did the coaches finally check the elbow and realize how much pain he was in. Up to that point, Braden had repeatedly signaled that the bone, not just the muscle, was the issue. Eventually, they subbed him out, though it wasn’t clear why they waited.
Nebraska locked down the final outs and punched their ticket out of the regional. The coaches celebrated with hugs, and the players ran to their families in the stands. Braden’s effort stood out, but the takeaway was simple: no youth player should be left out there when they’re clearly hurt.