Sunday night marks a chance to guarantee a spot in the history books for the Kansas Jayhawks. If KU can push past Arkansas, it will secure its spot in the Super Regionals for the first time as a program.
The Jayhawks have already snagged their first regular-season conference title in 77 years. To make things even sweeter, earlier this month, the Jayhawks won their first conference tournament since 2006 with a 9-0 shutout over West Virginia as the Big 12’s No. 1 seed.
After being confirmed as the nation’s No. 15 overall seed and regional hosts, the Jayhawks also got to welcome several All-Big 12 members.
Tyson LeBlanc and Boede Rahe earned First-Team nominations; Cade Baldridge, Josh Dykhoff and Dominic Voegele finished as second-team selections and Brady Ballinger and Mason Cook received All-Big 12 Honorable Mentions. All of those combined nicely with head coach Dan Fitzgerald’s Big 12 Coach of the Year Award, marking back-to-back years for Fitzgerald.
Kansas’ path through the regional has seen peaks and valleys
In moments against both Northeastern and Arkansas, the Jayhawks were found in tight-knit situations. Having held just a 4-3 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth against the Huskies, just for a day later to be tied 3-3 in the seventh inning against the Razorbacks, before clutch hitting situations in both games worked them out of holes.
When speaking with the media following Kansas’ 5-3 win over Arkansas, Fitzgerald spoke about how to handle the team’s schedule playing on such a compressed format, knowing that Sunday could book a ticket to the Super Regional, without fully knowing their next opponent until Sunday’s elimination game between Northeastern and Arkansas finished.
“Yeah, I think it's a combo of: we've got the scout on them, and we've got to pay attention to what's happening in the game, because it'll probably be telling about who we might face and what relievers they'll be able to bring back. So definitely be an active scout during the 1st game.”
“But really, at this point of the year, it just comes down to getting the guys prepared to play and sticking to a schedule…”
As of publishing, the Razorbacks officially took down the Huskies in a thrilling 10-9 matchup, sending the Huskies packing and forcing the Razorbacks to take down the Jayhawks in two straight games to ensure they move on to the Super Regionals ahead of the hosting Jayhawks.
KU took on the Razorbacks Saturday night, where Fitzgerald and Co. had to face off against one of the nation’s top arms in Hunter Dietz. According to MLB.com, Dietz is the nation’s best left-handed pitcher in the college ranks. On Saturday, Dietz largely left Kansas scraps, having tossed an astounding 14 strikeouts in the matchup before LeBlanc’s 23rd home run of the season broke the game open with a tying shot that gave KU all the momentum it needed to hold on for its second-straight win, with finishing touches from Tyson Owens and Augusto Mungarrieta.
First pitch is set for 6 p.m. CT with streaming available on ESPN2.
More Kansas News
Add us as a preferred source on Google