photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

New seating provides a view from the right field wall during the Jayhawks' open practice on Friday, June 5, 2026, at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence.

As Kansas embarked on its unbeaten run through the first-ever Lawrence Regional, there were moments when head coach Dan Fitzgerald took in the environment and thought, “Man, this is tough to top.”

Both the Jayhawks and their fans will attempt to step it up to yet another level beginning on Saturday, when KU hosts Oklahoma for a best-of-three super-regional series.

First pitch for the opener is set for 5 p.m. with a broadcast on ESPN2, as KU ace Dominic Voegele (6-3, 5.85 ERA) takes the hill against OU freshman lefty Cord Rager (4-3, 5.74 ERA).

Sunday’s matchup, also at 5 p.m., will pit KU sophomore Mason Cook (5-1, 4.23 ERA) against another freshman Sooner, righty Xander Mercurius (0-2, 6.18 ERA), whose brother LJ is also part of the pitching staff. A third game will take place on Monday if necessary.

KU caught a significant break when OU rallied in the seventh and final game of the Atlanta Regional to stun No. 2 overall seed Georgia Tech, perhaps the nation’s best hitting team, on an extra-innings walk-off home run. That gave the Jayhawks both a chance to continue playing at home and to do so against an ostensibly more manageable opponent.

But the Sooners, who tied for 11th in the SEC, do appear to have hit their stride at the right time after a 14-16 conference campaign and a quick exit in the league tournament.

“I feel like all the struggles and all the hardship that we endured all year kind of brought us together and kept molding us into the team that we are now,” junior shortstop Jaxon Willits said, “and I feel like we’ve kind of just embraced one another, and we’ve kind of got to the point where it’s not about individuals anymore, it’s all about going out there and helping the team win, and I feel like when we got to that point as a team we really started to take off.”

OU relied heavily on starting first-year pitchers in the Atlanta Regional, and junior lefty Cameron Johnson, one of the Sooners’ top arms, has been ineffective since a knee injury in early May. But the Sooners kept The Citadel at bay twice, led by strong showings on the mound from Rager and first-time starter Nick Wesloski, and then mustered enough offense to outgun Georgia Tech on two occasions after falling into the losers’ bracket.

Left fielder Brendan Brock (.283 average, .882 OPS, 12 home runs and 50 RBIs with 26 stolen bases) went 3-for-5 with four RBIs in a 15-8 win last Sunday, and center fielder Jason Walk, the leadoff man and an SEC all-defensive selection, was 3-for-6 and drove in three more.

Willits had a pair of key hits late in Monday’s comeback after the Sooners fell behind 7-3, and OU’s best overall hitter at the moment might be Deiten Lachance, a Canadian catcher and former JUCO teammate of Cook’s who homered in each of the two wins over Tech and has 14 home runs on the year, all of which have come since April 9.

“We’ve always had the talent to do what we are trying to do, which is go to Omaha,” senior designated hitter Trey Gambill said. “But sometimes it’s baseball, and if you let the game beat you down, it will. I think for a little bit, we got stuck in the dog days of summer, right, but when we were able to make those comebacks at Georgia Tech, it really just showed that we still are a team and we’re still together and we can do this.”

OU is looking to return to the College World Series after just a three-year absence. For the Jayhawks, it has been 33, long enough that KU has never participated in a super regional because the round didn’t exist until 1999.

So the Jayhawks find themselves on the precipice of a remarkable accomplishment amid what is already one of the most successful non-basketball seasons in recent KU Athletics history.

“It’s been quite a journey since last August with these guys, and couldn’t be more proud of them,” Fitzgerald said. “They show up every day and they compete, and another great challenge ahead of us with a great OU team, and looking forward to playing them.”

photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

The Oklahoma team bus arrives on the University of Kansas campus before their practice at Hoglund Ballpark on Friday, June 5, 2026, in Lawrence.

SOLIDARITY

The KU athletic department’s 12 other coaches chipped in for a social media video published on Friday morning wishing good luck to the baseball team ahead of its series with OU.

Volleyball coach Matt Ulmer recorded himself hitting a wiffle ball. Softball coach Jennifer McFalls was particularly effusive in her praise of the record-breaking campaign: “Man, keep the momentum going. You got a chance to get to the big dance and get to the World Series.”

“We are so very proud of you,” swim and dive coach Clark Campbell said. “Keep playing loose, playing free and for each other. You do that better than anyone in the country. Go get it.”

Fitzgerald said he was “fired up” but not at all surprised to see the support from his comrades.

“(The) department’s fantastic, and everyone uses the word ‘family’ in regard to everything athletically, but it really is here,” Fitzgerald said.

HIGH HEAT

Just like with Boede Rahe in the final innings, the Jayhawks will turn to sophomore righty Riane Ritter about as often as they can in middle relief, to the point that he is tied for the national lead with 37 appearances on the season.

But over the course of his previous 36, he had never touched 98 mph, which he managed to do twice for strikeouts in 1-2 counts in the bottom of the seventh inning last Sunday, as KU led 11-7 and Arkansas was threatening with runners on second and third.

“I’m never really trying to hit a PR (personal record) or anything like that, it’s more of just like the moment, like knowing with a guy on second and third, a mistake can flip this game over, and just try to hit my spot as hard as I can,” Ritter said. “If you’re going to miss, you better miss up. And then everybody yelling at you and the environment definitely creates that.”

Ritter acknowledged he had wanted to be a starter entering the season (he worked as a starter his first year at St. Thomas), and Fitzgerald has repeatedly referred to him as a prospective weekend starter for 2027. But he’s also enjoyed getting to pitch as often as he does.

“He’s a great athlete, he bounces back fast, (can) pitch to lefties and righties, and he’s, certainly as a reliever, incredibly valuable, we put him into every game,” Fitzgerald said, “and next year fully anticipate him being a rotation piece, and if he needed to start a game right now, he could certainly do that.”

BACKYARD BACKSTORY

Casey Cook, a longtime KU Athletics employee who serves as associate athletic director for events, has played a leading role in the various expansions to Hoglund Ballpark for postseason play. He spoke to a small group of reporters at the park on Friday afternoon amid final preparations for the weekend.

After the implementation of The Backyard section outside a new transparent left-field fence during the Lawrence Regional, KU has added “Backyard Decks,” a set of standing-room-only bleachers beyond right field, to push the capacity further above 4,000. (The choice to provide standing-room space rather than seating reflects a desire to cram in more people.)

“It should give viewers a really unprecedented view of the game that they’ve never seen at Hoglund Ballpark,” Cook said. “Standing up there, it’s kind of surreal, you’re looking out over the field, and you’re about waist high to the top of the wall, so it should give them a really good vantage point of what’s going on on the field.”

The original Backyard was inspired by similar areas at Arkansas and Louisville, Cook said, that he had seen while watching college baseball in the past.

“To see the players react to the fans out there and see the fans react to the space and their proximity to the field, it was really, again, surreal, to see that all come full circle and see them interact,” Cook said.

The Backyard name, by the way, was the brainchild of Ethan Derstine, a recent full-time hire serving as the tournament manager: “We were sitting through this, designing it out, and he just kind of slapped ‘The Backyard’ on it on a map, and it stuck,” Cook said, “and I think it’s done a really good job of really promoting what it feels like out there.”

Attacking the challenge of a brand-new event has been stimulating for Cook and company.

“We do a lot of, I don’t want to call the mundane, but you know, you’re doing the same game, same event, over and over and over again,” Cook said. “To get something like this thrown at you to kind of allow yourself to be a little bit creative, I think, gets those juices flowing, and gives us a little time to be problem solvers.”