No. 13 KU Baseball Advances to Big 12 Tournament Championship

The Kansas baseball team’s magical 2026 season continues as the Jayhawks defeated No. 5 seed Oklahoma State on Friday night 9-2 in the semifinals of the 2026 Big 12 Tournament. KU now advances to the Big 12 Tournament Championship where they’ll face the winner of No. 2 West Virginia and No. 3 Arizona State.

It will be just the third time that the KU baseball program has ever reached the title game in this tournament – the last being in 2013. Prior to that, it was 2006 when the Jayhawks reached the title game and defeated Nebraska by a final score of 9-7 to give the program its first (and only) Big 12 Tournament championship.

"Great win, really proud of the guys,” said Kansas Head Coach Dan Fitzgerald. “It's just another great Big 12 game in an incredibly tough conference against an outstanding lineup from Oklahoma State… We were able to get some runs early, which was critical. Cookie was fantastic, Toby bridged it and Riane was great. Super proud of the guys, great team effort. Couldn't be more proud of these guys."

The win moves Kansas to 41-16 overall on the season, with the 41 wins being the fourth most all time in KU baseball history.

Perhaps more importantly though, the win almost certainly solidifies KU’s chances of hosting a regional in next week’s NCAA Tournament. That would mean that every game of the four-team regional (teams and seeding to be determined) would be played at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence with KU as the No. 1 seed.

If KU wins that, there’s a chance they could host a super regional too – depending on how the other top seeds shake out.

But for now, the Jayhawks have their eyes set on making more history by winning the Big 12 Tournament. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. CT from Surprise, Arizona, with the game streaming live on ESPN2.

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