Via Kansas Athletics
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas baseball has been selected for the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship for the first time since 2014 after earning an at-large berth on Monday. The Jayhawks will head on the road as a No. 2 seed and play the No. 3-seeded Creighton Bluejays in the Fayetteville Regional on Friday, May 30 at 7 p.m. CT at Baum-Walker Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
Kansas is in an NCAA Regional for the sixth time in program history and the first under Big 12 Coach of the Year Dan Fitzgerald.
“Incredibly proud,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s exactly what we came here to do and more. Coming into this year we knew that we were a regional team. It was just about going out and executing. If you think about how we did execute, it was pretty fantastic. We won the games we were supposed to win and the times that we stubbed our toe, you can count them. This is incredibly fulfilling.”
KU plays Creighton in its first game of the Fayetteville Regional. Creighton won the BIG EAST regular season and tournament championships with an overall record of 41-14, including 17-4 in BIG EAST play. The other matchup in the regional is North Dakota State against host Arkansas at 2 p.m. CT on Friday.
Kansas and Creighton have played on 43 occasions all-time, with the Bluejays holding a 25-18 edge in the series. Despite the advantage in the series, Kansas has won each of the last six meetings between the two teams. All six of those matchups have happened in Lawrence and the most recent time the teams played was March 29, 2023, when Kansas won 3-1.
Kansas will enter the NCAA Tournament with its best record in a regular season in school history at 43-15, including a 20-10 mark in Big 12 play this season. The 43 wins for Kansas this season are tied for the second most in program history and the 20 conference wins were a school record. KU had seven conference series wins and five conference series sweeps, both program bests.
The Jayhawks are the only team in the country with at least 43 overall wins, 20 conference wins and 20 true road wins. KU is tied for the second most wins of any power conference team in the nation and finished with more overall wins than any team in the Big 12. The 20 road wins also established a new school record.
This season, Kansas has broken numerous program records with another one of those being home runs. KU has hit 100 home runs this season, shattering the school record for homers in a season, which was 75. In addition to home runs, the Jayhawks broke the program record for walks in a season and currently have 363 free passes. Kansas is one of two power conference schools in the top 11 nationally in home runs and walks.
In addition to Fitzgerald’s Big 12 Coach of the Yeah honor last week, first baseman Brady Ballinger was voted to the All-Big 12 First Team, while outfielder Jackson Hauge, pitcher Cooper Moore and designated hitter Dariel Osoria were selected to the All-Big 12 Second Team. Brady Counsell, who played in the infield and outfield this season, was awarded All-Big 12 Honorable Mention. Ballinger also received a spot on the Big 12 Championship All-Tournament Team.
The structure of an NCAA Regional is four teams are sent to a campus site and play in a double-elimination format. The winner of the Fayetteville Regional will move on to play in super regionals next weekend against the winner of the Knoxville Regional in a three-game series for the right to play in the College World Series.
