The senior second baseman erased the Huskers' struggles with runners in scoring position, and more importantly a one-run deficit, with a three-run blast in the bottom of the sixth inning, lifting the Huskers to an 8-6 win on a sun-drenched Sunday afternoon at Bowlin Stadium.
"That felt, honestly, amazing," Ybarra said of her second homer of the season. "I haven't really had an at-bat like that in a while. It just felt really nice to come out on top and win it for our team because we've been fighting the entire weekend after that loss on Friday."
The Huskers (14-10), who took three of four games in the series, were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position before Ybarra's blast got the team fired up.
Before Sunday, Nebraska was 0-8 this season when trailing after five innings.
"We just wanted to keep fighting, and I got fired up just because we did deserve to win that game," Ybarra said. "That was our game to win and we wanted to take the series."
As for momentum swings, Nebraska and Illinois put on a clinic in the series finale.
The Huskers jumped on four Illini errors in the third inning to take a 4-0 lead, and Illinois was unable to record a hit against Courtney Wallace through four innings.
All was going Nebraska's way.
But the Illini (15-9) finally cracked the hit column on Delaney Rummell's double to the gap in left-center field in the fifth. And then Illinois cracked the scoreboard for six runs.
It sent 10 batters to the plate in the frame, chased off Wallace, had five hits and capitalized on some Husker fielding miscues and communication errors.
But Nebraska responded in the sixth. It loaded the bases on three walks with one out for Ybarra, and got to within one when Rylie Unzicker scored on a wild pitch.
Ybarra, who had two of NU's four hits, fouled off four straight pitches before connecting on the eighth delivery, a pitch at the waistline, from Illinois' Addy Jarvis. It was the only hit Jarvis gave up in 3 2/3 innings of relief.
"I got a little greedy at the beginning of the at-bat," said Ybarra, an Oregon State transfer. "I was just trying to make (Jarvis) raise it up because she was throwing a lot at our knees. Once I got two strikes, you got to foul off anything that’s close. Sure enough, she gave me the pitch that I wanted."
That was Ybarra's best at-bat of the season, Nebraska hitting coach Diane Miller told head coach Rhonda Revelle.
"... And it wasn’t just because of what the result was, it was because how she was managing herself in between pitches," Revelle said. "I think she’s had so much experience as of late hitting behind Tristen, you’re having a lot of opportunities hitting with runners on base, so I think she’s starting to manage those opportunities really well."
Olivia Ferrell worked out of a mini-jam in the seventh to earn the win. The senior pitched the final 2 2/3 innings.
Nebraska bounced back after Friday's 4-0 shutout loss, scoring five, 10 and eight runs over the next three games. Ybarra said the team did a better job with pitch selection and timing pitches over the final three games.
"The dugout was different these last three games," Revelle said. "Sometimes with the cheering and all that, I’m not saying that not’s good, but it was more about staying in the moment of the game and helping each other grind out at-bats and really taking information, so that was great to see.
"I thought it was a step forward for our team."
Photos: Let's play two! — Nebraska hosts Illinois for doubleheader softball action
Reach Clark Grell at 402-473-2639 or cgrell@journalstar.com. On Twitter at @LJSSportsGrell.