Jake Bunz's days look a lot like everyone else's right now.
A lot of video games. A lot of television. A lot of nothing.
But a couple of weeks ago, Bunz's phone buzzed. On the other end of the line was a member of the Nebraska baseball coaching staff. And suddenly, days got a lot more exciting.
Like everyone else, Nebraska's first-year baseball coach Will Bolt has been forced to adjust to the new reality brought forth by the coronavirus.Â
Bunz, a 6-foot-5, 240-pound left-handed pitcher from Elkhorn South, announced Thursday he would play baseball for Nebraska beginning next season.
"I was shocked, really. I wasn't expecting it at all," Bunz said of that initial contact from the NU coaching staff. "But from the first conversation I knew it was going to go well, and we've gotten along. Every conversation my parents have had with Coach (Jeff) Christy and Coach (Will) Bolt, it's been great."
Bunz spent the 2019 season at Hutchinson Community College, going 8-1 with a 3.48 earned-run average for the Blue Dragons.
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He had a nearly 4-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, striking out 81 batters while walking 22 in 54 1/3 innings. He earned second-team all-region honors after the season.
That came one year after Bunz was a second-team Super-State pick in 2018, helping lead Elkhorn South to a 19-10 record and an appearance in the Class A state tournament.
But Bunz wasn't able to take part in a season shortened by the coronavirus pandemic this season. He underwent Tommy John surgery May 31 of last year, and said Aug. 1 is the target date to be back to full health.
That Nebraska extended an offer after other schools had backed off, Bunz said, was a big gesture.
"This is the spot I wanted to be. Just with the injury, not a lot of schools were giving me a look," Bunz said. "So Nebraska, it means a lot for them to reach out and talk to me now with recovering from arm surgery."
Bunz said he's able to go to rehab once a week, and throws three times a week at home. When he's recovered, and whenever NU gets back to playing baseball, he said Nebraska's coaches have told him he'll have the chance to contribute right away and eat up innings.
He'll get the chance to do that on the field he grew up coming to as a kid. His parents have been longtime baseball season ticket holders, and both attended Nebraska as college students.
So in a world that has changed dramatically when it comes to recruiting, there wasn't much new for Bunz to discover about the Nebraska program.
"It's (the recruiting process) a little tough, but I've been to Lincoln so much and I know the surroundings," Bunz said. "If I wasn't from here it would be a little different. But going to Lincoln for Saturday Husker games all my life, I know my way around the place already."