Kansas Baseball Regional: Get to Know the Opponents

KU baseball enters the NCAA Tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country with a record of 42-16 overall and 22-8 record in Big 12 play. After winning the Big 12 Tournament in dominating fashion this past weekend, they became the first Big 12 team since 2009 to win both the regular season and tournament championship in the same season.

But the No. 1 seed Jayhawks will have their hands full with arguably the toughest regional in the entire tournament.

The Lawrence regional is the only one of the 16 regionals to feature three teams ranked inside the RPI top 25 with KU at No. 19, Arkansas at No. 21, and Missouri State at No. 23. Northeastern (No. 88 in RPI) is the only school not ranked in the top 25.

Collectively, it’s the lowest average RPI ranking of any regional this year at 37.75.

No. 2 seed Arkansas (ranked No. 12 in the country by D1 Baseball) was expected to be a regional host themselves after racking up a 39-20 record (17-13 in SEC play), which included 18 Quadrant (Quad) 1 wins and a second place finish in the SEC Tournament. Their 18 Quad 1 wins are the second most in the country behind the tournament’s No. 2 overall seed Georgia Tech.

Missouri State is considered to be underrated as a No. 3 seed given their RPI ranking and strength of schedule (No. 44 in the country). The Bears enter the tournament with a 34-19 record overall and an 18-9 record in the Missouri Valley Conference this season where they finished third in the regular season.

Meanwhile, No. 4 seed Northeastern enters the NCAA Tournament with a 38-20 record overall and 23-4 record in the Coastal Athletic Association. Like the Jayhawks, the Huskies won both their conference regular season and tournament championships and come in with a lot of confidence.

First pitch for KU versus Northeastern is set for 12 p.m. CT Friday at Hoglund Ballpark.

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