Kansas to host Northeastern, Arkansas, Missouri State for NCAA baseball regional
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas will host an NCAA regional at Hoglund Ballpark Friday through Monday.
- KU drew the No. 15 national seed and will open the regional vs Northeastern.
- Hoglund Ballpark capacity will rise from 2,500 to roughly 4,000 for the regional.
The Big 12-champion Kansas Jayhawks baseball team will play host to Northeastern, Missouri State and Arkansas in an NCAA Tournament regional starting Friday at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence, it was revealed on Monday.
KU (42-16) — which has qualified for the NCAA Division I baseball championship for the seventh time in school history (1993, 1994, 2006, 2009, 2014, 2025, 2026) — will open the double-elimination regional against Northeastern (38-20) of the Coastal Athletic Association at noon Central Time on Friday in Lawrence.
Arkansas (39-20) will take on Missouri State (34-19) in Friday’s other first-round clash at 5 p.m.
In all, 16 teams were selected as hosts for the four-team weekend tournaments. Those teams were seeded. KU drew the No. 15 seed.
This marks the first time KU has been a regional host. It’s also the first time the Jayhawks have competed in the NCAAs in back-to-back seasons since 1993 and 1994.
“What an awesome day,” fourth-year KU coach Dan Fitzgerald said after the team’s Memorial Day watch party inside Allen Fieldhouse.
The KU players, coaches, coaches’ families, athletic department members and even some fans gathered to watch the ESPN Selection Show.
“The media often wants me to reflect. I do a poor job reflecting, so I made a point today … I thought back to four years ago,” Fitzgerald said. “What we’ve all done in a four-year time period … how amazing it is. We literally stacked a brick each day in moving this along.”
Fitzgerald credited his players, coaches, fans and the Kansas administration.
“I’ve challenged our guys since August, ‘Nobody can enjoy it more than us.’ It’s been an incredible ride,” Fitzgerald said, noting, ‘We’ve made some incredible modifications to the ballpark, which means we can pack this thing at an epic level. I can’t wait to get rolling. We’re just getting started.”
Seating and standing room-only capacity at Kansas’ Hoglund Ballpark will increase from 2,500 fans to approximately 4,000 for the regional. A new fan area called “The Backyard” will be located beyond a temporary see-through chain-link fence in left field.
Fans who do not sit in temporary bleachers will be allowed to bring their own lawn chairs or stand during the action. There also will be additional standing room-only seats by the visitor’s bullpen.
“This will be the best regional in college baseball this season. It just will, in terms of the energy, the story lines, the way this community is stepping up into it, the unique things the staff is doing (in adding seats),” KU athletic director Travis Goff said Monday.
“It’s going to be like nothing I think Lawrence and frankly KU has ever experienced. We’ve had some incredible moments of recent years. You think about ESPN “Game Day,” Fox’s “Big Noon on the Hill” — and we’ve had obviously a great season under our belt with the new Booth (renovated football stadium).
“I think this thing this weekend will rival any sporting event that’s happened here in Lawrence at the University of Kansas.”
Perhaps the only negative on a festive Memorial Day at KU was the Jayhawks’ exact seeding. KU, the No. 13-ranked team in the country, garnered the 15th of 16 seeds. No. 9-ranked West Virginia, runner-up to KU in both the Big 12’s regular season and league tourney, was No. 16.
Some had believed KU might be seeded as high as 12th or so. No. 20-ranked Nebraska received a 13-seed, and KU swept the Huskers two games to none this season.
In all, 64 teams will compete in the NCAA Tournament, with winners progressing from the regional round to super regionals.
“Obviously I thought winning it (Big 12 tourney) would move us closer to the national seed,” Fitzgerald said. “(I’m) surprised that we didn’t move up further, but I thought about it for probably 15 minutes and then put it away because we have our hands full playing really good teams.
“Globally (it’s an) unbelievable first-world problem to be worried about what seed you are in the NCAA tournament as a host site,” Fitzgerald added, smiling. “When you look at the field and you look at all 16 (seeds), it’s a really, really deep field. You can make a case that a lot of us should be bumped up, which again points to the level of competitiveness and the level of talent in college baseball right now.
“I don’t think college baseball has ever been better than it is today.”
