Nate Fisher turned his career around for the Nebraska baseball team this year. Now he's off to a very good start in his new career for the Seattle Mariners' organization. After signing with the club as an undrafted free agent, he was assigned to the Everett Aquasox of the Northwest League. On Friday, he made his first appearance of the short season and absolutely dominated the Tri-City Dust Devils.

The long strange trip for Nebraska baseball alum

There was certainly a time in Nate Fisher's life when the pitcher would have had to admit that the chances of him even getting the opportunity to show what he could do in the minors was a long shot.

Fisher has always had the talent to be one of the better pitchers in the Big Ten. It has taken him a little bit of time to harness those abilities. It appears that making a move from the bullpen to the rotation benefitted him greatly, at least in his senior season.

Fisher showed a spark in his freshman year when he appeared in nine games and posted a 3.86 earned run average. While his numbers weren't terrible, the one thing that stood out was the number of free passes he issued. Fisher walked five batters in just 9.1 innings pitched. In his sophomore season, he struggled through 15 appearances. He put up a 5.53 ERA and a 1.63 WHIP. The good news was that he had started to get his command together.

2018, the Nebraska baseball alum's Junior season, Fisher had the worst year of his Husker career. In 15 games (eight relief appearances, seven starts) he posted a 1-5 record with a 7.24 earned run average. The one place where he continued to show improvement was his ability to throw strikes, getting his S0/W all the way up to 3.00 for the season.

This year, his final with the Cornhuskers, Fisher managed to continue to avoid free passes while also missing bats and recording more outs. He posted a 7-3 record with career-bests 3.27 ERA and 1.22 WHIP. That performance earned him the game one start in the regional game against UCONN. While he didn't pitch all that well, it was the only win the Cornhuskers would get in the postseason.

On June 7, he signed his deal with the Seattle Mariners and a week later, toed the rubber as a professional baseball player for the first time.

Making his case

While Fisher will likely be the first to tell you that he's got a long row to hoe, his first outing had a lot of good signs. The former Nebraska baseball hurler logged two innings in relief, allowing just one hit, no runs, no walks and fanning three. It appears his resurgence as a pitcher is continuing at the next level. Fisher joins fellow starting pitcher Matt Waldron and infielder Angelo Altavilla as Huskers from this class who are now in the minor leagues.
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