KU Jayhawks’ Hoglund Ballpark is rocking for NCAA regional games, participants say
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Record Hoglund Ballpark crowd of 4,042 fans vocally supported KU in the Arkansas win.
- Bohde Rahe was hitless in both KU’s 6-3 and 5-3 regional wins.
- KU hosted its first NCAA regional and set single‑game home attendance records.
Kansas Jayhawks closer Boede Rahe credited a record-setting Hoglund Ballpark crowd of 4,042 fans — specifically, their sustained, high-volume cheering — after KU’s 5-3 victory over Arkansas in a Saturday evening NCAA Regional game on the diamond just south of rowdy Allen Fieldhouse.
Rahe, a junior from Marion, Iowa, did not allow a hit in Friday’s 6-3 win over Northeastern or Saturday’s two-run decision over the Razorbacks. He called the environment “crazy” for KU’s first regional-hosting assignment in school history.
“We have ‘Pitchcoms’ in our hats (transmitting calls from catcher Augusto Mungarrieta to the mound) and usually I’d say I’m at a ‘Volume 11,’” Rahe said with a smile. “And before I went out there (from the bullpen to mound), I put it up to 17. So that says enough about the crowd that we had there.”
Said Jayhawks slugger Tyson LeBlanc, a junior fan favorite from Maurice, Louisiana who blasted a game-tying two-run homer in the fifth inning: “The crowd played a big part today. That atmosphere was insane. That’s one of the best atmospheres I’ve ever played in front of.
“Obviously, we come out tomorrow to compete for the regional championship, so we need them out (the fans) there behind us first through the ninth.”
KU set a school-record single-game home attendance mark on successive nights. Some 3,571 fans attended the Northeastern game Friday. Normally, Hoglund seats 2,500, but additional seats and standing-room areas — including “The Backyard” beyond the fence in left field — were added for the regional.
“I mean I felt it coming in the ballpark. I went on a walk this morning and walked past 100 students in line,” KU coach Dan Fitzgerald said.
As usual, the students filled the seats behind the visiting team’s dugout for the KU-Arkansas game.
“I don’t know what time it was, but you hear of the line growing and you just hear people coming in the ballpark and there’s a there’s a very distinct sound that you hear in the dugout as the crowd starts to build,” Fitzgerald said. “The optics of it, to look out in ‘The Backyard,’ which is just a great name for that, but to look out there and see it filling up — the students, it’s hard to describe how amazing they are.”
With Saturday’s victory, KU advanced to a 5 p.m. Sunday game against the winner of a noon battle between Arkansas and Northeastern.
“You could feel it,” fourth-year KU coach Fitzgerald said of Saturday’s energy. “I mean, there are multiple times in the dugout where my emotions are frayed. After 25 years of doing this, I don’t feel a whole lot — and I felt a lot tonight. Hair was standing up on my arms for a good chunk of that — it was electric.”
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn, whose home stadium in Fayetteville seats 11,121 (it can accommodate over 13,000 when incorporating standing-room sections) tipped his cap to KU’s program and fans. And coach.
“He’s done a tremendous job, him and his staff,” Van Horn said of Fitzgerald. “They’ve done a great job of evaluating a lot of kids and a lot of junior-college kids.
“You look to see where they’re from (and) they’re from all over the place: Canada, New York, Las Vegas. That’s what you have to do, and you know, it doesn’t surprise me.
“The atmosphere and everything that’s going on, probably throughout the year, winning the Big 12 ... I know how hard it is to win the Big 12. Again, it’s hard to do, and they’ve done it.”
Arkansas must defeat Northeastern at noon Sunday to get a chance to play KU at 5 p.m. Sunday in the first championship game. If KU wins the 5 p.m. game, the Jayhawks win the regional and advance to the NCAA Super Regionals. If KU loses Sunday at 5, there would be a second regional title game on Monday.
“We can say all we want to. They (Arkansas’ players) have to rally themselves,” Van Horn said. “I told them that we come out and let’s find a way to play well. And maybe you’ll get an opportunity to play Kansas again, and that’s that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
This story was originally published May 30, 2026 at 11:24 PM.
