photo by: Sarah Buchanan/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas baseball holds practice before the NCAA regional on Thursday, May 28, 2026, in Lawrence. The Jayhawks will host an NCAA regional at Hoglund Ballpark beginning on Friday.

The first-ever baseball regional in Lawrence is ready to get underway.

Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri State and Northeastern practiced at a newly reconfigured Hoglund Ballpark on Thursday in advance of Friday’s opening action, with top-seeded host KU set to take on Northeastern at 12 p.m. and Arkansas and Missouri State doing battle at 5 p.m.

“Our administration has done an incredible job of making Hoglund ready,” KU coach Dan Fitzgerald said. “Our facilities crew has been working on this for weeks, and really the planning of this is months and months in advance. Just like everything at KU, people have stepped up and done an incredible job.”

Now comes what should be some of the most hotly contested regional action anywhere in the country, as KU, Arkansas and Missouri State are separated by just four spots in the NCAA’s RPI metric.

“You could say the best four seed in the tournament, the best three seed and the best two seed,” Fitzgerald said. “So in terms of the competitive level of this thing, it’s about as awesome as it gets, and a great challenge for us. We couldn’t be more excited to play tomorrow.”

First up for the Jayhawks are the Huskies, who fought their way up from the losers’ bracket to win the CAA tournament.

“At the end of the day, we’re on the same field, playing 60 foot, 6 inches on the mound, pitching to just a different team,” closer Boede Rahe said, “so it’s going about it the same way, but continuing to train and prepare and be ready for the weekend.”

The Huskies aren’t new to NCAA regional action. This will be their fifth time in the postseason since 2018, all under current head coach Mike Glavine, though they are a combined 1-8 in those appearances with the lone win coming last year in Tallahassee, Florida.

Northeastern’s defining trait is how much it runs. The Huskies lead the nation with 210 stolen bases, which is 29 more than the next most prolific team, and 95 more than anyone in the Big 12. Right fielder Carmelo Musacchia is 44-for-54 on the year, while left fielder Harrison Feinberg is 42-for-48, and two more Huskies have at least 20 stolen bases. (KU, for comparison, has one player with double-digit steals, Tyson LeBlanc, who is 10-for-11.)

“Every team that we play, we work the same, we prepare the same,” said catcher Augusto Mungarrieta, who will be tasked with containing Northeastern’s speed on the base paths.

Feinberg is a standout at the plate, too, where he leads the team with 16 home runs and 63 RBIs on a .330 average. Freshman Tyler Harmony didn’t play much until mid-April, but the third baseman now leads the Huskies by batting .371.

The third member of Northeastern’s standout outfield, junior center fielder Ryan Gerety (.323, .946 OPS), joined Feinberg on the All-CAA first team, as did senior designated hitter Matt Brinker (.310, .959, eight home runs and 59 RBIs) and graduate relief pitcher Andrew Wertz.

Wertz is a right-hander, a transfer from Division III Salve Regina with a team-best 2.84 ERA. Sophomore righty Andrew Rogovic, Georgetown transfer righty Matthew Sapienza and redshirt junior righty Joseph Hauser are among Northeastern’s most frequently deployed relief arms. The Huskies will start senior right-hander Luc Rising, a second-team all-conference selection who has 80 strikeouts to 22 walks on the year with a 3.24 ERA.

“They’re tough,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s the great part about playing in the NCAA Tournament: It’s 64 teams that have earned it, and these guys are very exemplary of that, of just a really gritty, tough, blue-collar, ready-to-compete team. We all sign up to play the best and to compete against the best and these guys are every bit of that.”

PITCHING ON

KU won’t get fancy with its pitching rotation against the Huskies. Some regional hosts choose to “pitch off,” or save their ace for a second day of action with the idea that they can beat a No. 4 seed without using up their best arm.

The Jayhawks will start Dominic Voegele against Northeastern. The junior righty has a 6.01 ERA on the season, but has come on strong since mid-April, posting double-digit strikeouts in four of his last seven starts and only allowing more than three runs on a single occasion in that span.

“He’s pitched every weekend of his college career,” Fitzgerald said. “And the past two months, he’s been as good as anyone in the country. It’s a really steady mix. He can throw anything in any count. He’s a great athlete.”

Arkansas, by the way, will start Gabe Gaeckle against Missouri State, meaning that the Razorbacks are saving their ace Hunter Dietz (who had to exit an SEC tournament game after getting hit in the leg by a line drive) for Saturday.

RAIN OR SHINE

Fitzgerald said one benefit of playing in an earlier time slot is that it provides a higher chance of getting the game in when there are weather concerns.

But he didn’t sound all that worried about projected rain affecting KU on Friday. (Granted, it is in the forecast all through the weekend, with some lightning ahead as well.)

“I think we’re good tomorrow,” he said. “It looks like we’ve got storms in the morning and it looks like it dies down throughout the day. We’ve got a buffer with our game at noon and game two at five, we’ll have plenty of time. I’ve been in a lot of these, and outside of last year, maybe one other that wasn’t affected by weather. So I just assume that when you’re in the NCAA Tournament you’re going to have rain on the opening weekend.”

FAMILIAR FACE (I)

Rob Thomson is KU’s single-season record holder for batting average (.443 in 1984). He is also a former MLB coach who led the Philadelphia Phillies to a World Series appearance in 2022, a year he had begun as a bench coach before taking over as interim manager. He remained at the helm of the Phillies until he was fired on April 28.

A month later, he made an appearance at Hoglund Ballpark and chatted with Fitzgerald and KU players during practice on Thursday morning.

“Rob’s the coolest human being I know,” Fitzgerald said. “He’s so humble, and he’s done everything you can possibly do in the game of baseball. He’s become a good friend. I have to be careful when I’m with him to not ask too many questions, because I could literally ask him thousands of questions. I told him I’d let him wear No. 12 tomorrow and help out in the dugout, but Dom has to wear his jersey tomorrow.”

FAMILIAR FACE (II)

KU never got the opportunity to play against Arkansas in last year’s NCAA regional at Baum-Walker Stadium. But chances are that if the Jayhawks want to reach the super regional round for the first time, they will need to get through the Razorbacks at least once.

That means the Jayhawks’ backup catcher and occasional designated hitter Max Soliz Jr. will go up against his former team.

Soliz, a Houston native, started his career with the Razorbacks in 2022 and appeared in five games with one start. He then played at Chattahoochee Valley Community College before joining the Jayhawks in 2025.

He has played sparingly the last two seasons, serving as a starter behind the plate at times early in 2025, and announced a transfer to Hawaii after the season before reversing course and returning to KU.

Mungarrieta has been the Jayhawks’ primary catcher this year, but Soliz has appeared in 31 games with 29 starts. He is batting .206 with five home runs and 19 RBIs.

Fitzgerald said the senior will certainly appear at some point this weekend and has a bright future ahead in baseball.

“He’s an unsung hero on this thing,” Fitzgerald said. “You know, Max has grinded through a lot and he’s come up in some really big spots … Sometimes with guys that aren’t getting the at-bats that maybe they’d like, you worry about where does the attitude go, and Max has been an unbelievable attitude. He continues to work.”

HAMATE UPDATE

Junior left fielder Brady Ballinger missed KU’s Big 12 tournament run with a hamate bone injury he had suffered in the Jayhawks’ season finale against BYU. After Soliz initially started in Ballinger’s place, sophomore Savion Flowers replaced him for most of the tournament and delivered several key hits, including most notably a walk-off home run in the opening round against Baylor.

Ballinger was seen with a wrap on his hand at KU’s NCAA selection show watch party on Monday. But on Thursday, he took part in batting practice.

Fitzgerald had previously said that KU expects Ballinger back for regional play, and on Thursday he elaborated: “He was good today. He was better today than he was yesterday, so we’ll continue to evaluate it throughout the day, he’ll continue to get treatment, and we’ll look at it in the morning and see where he’s at.”