photo by: Big 12 Conference

Kansas pitcher Dominic Voegele delivers against Oklahoma State on Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Arlington, Texas.

The Kansas baseball team will get its first taste of NCAA regional baseball since 2014 as KU, a No. 2 seed, takes on No. 3 seed Creighton at 7 p.m. on Friday at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The postseason berth is the result of a memorable season that put the Jayhawks’ program back on the national stage in just its third year under head coach Dan Fitzgerald, the Big 12 coach of the year.

It could also be the start of something much greater, and Fitzgerald has said he believes his team has long been prepared to play its best baseball at the end of the season. Opening the double-elimination regional with a victory would go a long way toward helping KU’s postseason dreams come true.

The winner of KU-Creighton will face the winner of Friday afternoon’s matchup between host Arkansas and No. 4 North Dakota State, the Summit League tournament champion. That semifinal game is set for Saturday at 8 p.m. Meanwhile, the first-round losers will battle just before that in an elimination game at 2 p.m. Saturday.

When KU received its tournament draw on Monday, Fitzgerald praised retiring Creighton coach Ed Servais as one of the best defensive teachers in all of baseball. That status is evident in some of the Bluejays’ statistics. They have turned a league-leading 43 double plays and have thwarted 24 of their opponents’ 75 attempts to steal bases this season.

Even more impressive, though, might be their pitching, with a team ERA of 4.00 that vastly outstrips the rest of their league competition. Creighton had three all-conference first-team pitchers, including Big East Pitcher of the Year Dominic Cancellieri and Freshman of the Year Wilson Magers as well as reliever Garrett Langrell.

It’s a versatile group, and top starter Cancellieri, the only unanimous first-team selection in the league, leads it with a season-long ERA of 1.94. Langrell is seventh in Division I with 13 saves on the year and has struck out 52 batters while issuing just nine walks. Appearance leader Matthew Aukerman is 8-0 in relief and holds foes to a .193 batting average.

The Bluejays aren’t quite as accomplished on the offensive end, and they certainly don’t hit for power with just 43 home runs on the year. But left fielder Nolan Sailors is an on-base machine who bats .392 and is also a team-best 27-for-30 on stolen bases this year. Sophomore catcher Connor Capece isn’t far behind at .350 and defensively is responsible for catching 18 runners stealing.

Creighton (41-14, 17-4) dropped some games against lesser competition at the start of its lengthy nonconference slate and in April lost a series to middling Seton Hall. But beginning on April 17, the Bluejays won 18 of their final 20 regular-season games, including 14 of 15 in league play. They then beat St. John’s, Xavier and UConn to win the Big East tournament and clinch an automatic bid, with UConn ultimately landing in the first four teams left out of the NCAA Tournament.

The Jayhawks will be looking to exceed their last trip to regionals in 2014, when they won their opener against Kentucky, fell to host Louisville and then lost again to Kentucky for a 1-2 result. KU has never taken part in a Super Regional, as the Jayhawks’ lone trip to the College World Series, in 1993, occurred before the adoption of the current postseason format.

KU’s top two arms, Dominic Voegele and Cooper Moore, will look to rebound after both performed below their usual standard at the Big 12 Championship; in the case of Voegele’s outing, though, he received stellar bullpen support from Manning West and Alex Breckheimer that gave the Jayhawks time to come back against Oklahoma State, largely due to a two-out three-run home run in the seventh inning by first baseman Brady Ballinger.

Ballinger has been the most potent offensive player in a lineup full of them, as he is batting .363 with a 1.200 OPS, 16 home runs and 56 RBIs. The team leader in home runs (19) and RBIs (68), though, is right fielder Jackson Hauge, who is expected back after he was held out of the 11-1 eight-inning loss to TCU last Friday as an injury precaution.

Designated hitter Dariel Osoria and third baseman Brady Counsell joined Moore, Ballinger and Hauge in receiving all-league honors. While Hauge hit a home run against OSU, suggesting he might be on the way toward returning to his early-season form, Counsell has continued a slump of his own; he’s batting 3-for-35 (.086) in the last three-plus weeks.

The Jayhawks faced Creighton two seasons ago, in the early days of the Fitzgerald era, and won 3-1 at Hoglund Ballpark on March 29, 2023. KU retains just a handful of players from that first year, but two of them, pitchers Thaniel Trumper and Gavin Brasosky, combined for 6 2/3 scoreless innings in that game, and the other two, Michael Brooks and Mike Koszewski, each played, with Brooks recording a hit and Koszewski serving as a late-game defensive replacement.

Among Creighton’s pitchers that day were Cancellieri, who started, and Malakai Vetock, who has since transferred to KU. Each threw a scoreless inning.

Vetock, a middle-relief option throughout the year for the Jayhawks, has a 5.79 ERA in 23 1/3 innings pitched this season.