photo by: Kansas Athletics

Kansas center fielder Derek Cerda connects with the ball during a game against Creighton on Friday, May 30, 2025, in Fayetteville, Ark.

Fayetteville, Ark. — The Kansas baseball team has been accustomed to making comebacks all season, but the Jayhawks will now have to pull off their biggest one yet if they want to escape the Fayetteville Regional at Baum-Walker Stadium.

After Friday night’s 11-4 loss to Creighton, in which a seven-run sixth inning eliminated any possible intrigue, KU is charged with getting up off the mat to face No. 4 seed North Dakota State on Saturday at 2 p.m. Whichever team loses will have its season come to an end.

“When you look at the grand scheme of how we played and the ebbs and flows of the season, we’ve talked from day one about adversity,” head coach Dan Fitzgerald said. “Now we get a chance to face it. I told the guys at the end of the game that this stuff’s never easy and no one said it would be.”

Added designated hitter Dariel Osoria, who hit a home run in the loss: “Nothing really changes from here on out based off our preparation. We have to just do the same thing and stick to our true approach.”

That approach has served the Jayhawks well throughout a season in which they set records for regular-season wins, league wins and road wins, but to go any further they’ll need to get past the Bison.

Fresh off its run through the Summit League tournament, NDSU came back down to earth in its opening action at Baum-Walker Stadium on Friday, though not necessarily right away.

With Arkansas opting to start redshirt sophomore Oregon State transfer Aiden Jimenez — essentially preserving all of its starters for the remainder of the weekend — the Bison went ahead in the first inning on a two-out RBI single by center fielder Sam Canton. After NDSU’s top starter, Summit League Pitcher of the Year Nolan Johnson, gave up two runs in the bottom of the first inning, the Bison equalized again on the second pitch of the second with a home run by Colten Becker.

That was all the scoring NDSU accomplished on the day, as Jimenez settled down and Parker Coil and Landon Beidelschies combined for four shutout innings with four hits allowed and no walks. Arkansas piled on four more runs against Johnson, and Landon Koenig’s own shutout showing in three innings of relief was for naught as the Razorbacks won 6-2.

NDSU’s most productive hitter on most days is shortstop Jake Schaffner, who bats .378 but went 0-for-3 with a pair of walks on Friday. (He was also the conference defensive player of the year.) Becker now leads the team with six home runs, and he and Canton had the only multi-hit showings for NDSU against the Razorbacks. Third baseman Davis Hamilton and right fielder Dante Smith both hit north of .300.

The Jayhawks will be fortunate to have missed Johnson, but NDSU has a solid secondary option of its own in Canadian righty Logan Knight, who most recently pitched a complete-game shutout against Oral Roberts on May 22. The Bison also saved first-team all-conference reliever Danny Lachenmayer, who has a 2.60 ERA with 53 strikeouts and eight saves this season.

KU has top relievers like Alex Breckheimer and Eric Lin rested, since Friday’s game was not in question. It will open with its usual Saturday starter, sophomore Cooper Moore.

“Coop’s been one of the top pitchers in the country for a long time,” Fitzgerald said on Friday. “And I could see his wheels turning — about the seventh inning, he took on kind of a different mindset inside of the dugout. There’s no guy better in the country that we’d want on the mound tomorrow than Cooper Moore.”

One player whose availability for Saturday remains in question is starting center fielder Derek Cerda, who exited midway through the marathon sixth inning against Creighton with a hamstring injury.

“We’re beat up like everyone else in the country right now at this point in the season,” Fitzgerald said. “So hopefully he’s ready to go. We’ll get a good report and he already got some treatment and he’ll get some as soon as we get back to the hotel.”

If Cerda isn’t able to go, Tommy Barth would likely get the start in center field with Mike Koszewski entering the lineup in left.