Dominic Voegele and KU Jayhawks are ready for baseball showdown vs. OU at The Hog
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Dominic Voegele entered the Super Regional with 117 strikeouts, KU's single-season record.
- KU planned to start Voegele Saturday with Mason Cook named as the game two starter.
- Oklahoma advanced to Lawrence after upsetting Georgia Tech and will start Cord Rager.
Steady junior pitcher Dominic Voegele didn’t envision any changes in his day-before-a-start routine in the hours preceding Saturday’s highly anticipated NCAA Super Regional battle against Oklahoma.
Game one of the best-of-three series college baseball series — from which the winner will advance to the College World Series — is 5 p.m. Saturday at Hoglund Ballpark.
“Personally I just like to relax and try not to do too much, kind of save all my energy for tomorrow,” Voegele said Friday. “But in the weight room we’ll do an explosive lift and then out on the field light catch, make sure everything’s still feeling good, and just prepare mentally tonight for the game.”
Voegele’s preparation helped him become one of the most productive starting pitchers in the Big 12 Conference this year.
“Get a good night’s sleep, hydrate and see my pitches right before I go to bed,” said Voegele, a 6-foot-2 junior from Columbia, Illinois.
The Southeastern Conference’s Sooners (36-22) are a potent bunch. They scored 15 runs in one game, against Citadel, then 23 runs in a pair of regional championship games against Georgia Tech last weekend in Atlanta, as in a majority of his other outings for KU (45-16) during this magical season.
“It’s kind of like what we’ve been doing all year preparing for the three-game series — during conference, too,” Voegele said of the prep work for a series whose winner advances to the CWS in Omaha late next week.
“I feel like we’re pretty well-prepared for that. We’ve got a good three-man rotation (which includes game-two starter Mason Cook), deep enough bullpen and our hitters are always going to back us up out there. So, I feel like we have a pretty good advantage with the home crowd, too. So it’ll be a good weekend.”
The 200-pound right-hander broke KU’s individual single-season strikeout record versus Northeastern on March 29. He surpassed Mike Zagurski’s 112 from 2005. Voegele has 117, ranking third in the Big 12 and tied for 13th nationally.
Voegele, who is in his third year with the KU program, enters the Super Regional round of the postseason with 286 career strikeouts. He’s 21 from tying school record holder T.J. Walz, who fanned 307 from 2008-11.
What’s more, Voegele, who was drafted out of high school by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 20th round in 2023, is the only NCAA Division I pitcher this season with at least 15 strikeouts in multiple games.
He’s also one of just three pitchers nationally to throw a nine-inning complete game with 15-plus strikeouts this year (against Arizona on May 1). He’s the first KU pitcher with 15 strikeouts in a game since Jimmy Walker (May 31, 1993) in the Mideast Regional title game that sent KU to its only CWS to date.
Seven of Voegele’s last eight starts have been quality starts. He’s had 10-plus strikeouts in four of those eight games.
“Seeing Dom give us a good start, showing us how it’s done and then giving everybody else a blueprint to attack these hitters has been really fun,” said sophomore KU middle reliever Riane Ritter, who after an effective inning or two often turns it over to closer Boede Rahe.
“It’s win or go home,” KU coach Dan Fitzgerald said when asked how he’d handle his Voegele- and Cook-led pitching staff in a series that includes a game Sunday (5 p.m.) and Monday (time TBD), if necessary.
“So I think there are decisions that you make throughout the course of the first two days, depending on where you’re sitting, but in essence, it’s you trying to win a series,” the coach said. “Some of those in-game decisions — when do we go to Ritter, and when do we go to Boede — and those may change in certain situations, but for the most part, we’re just trying to win a series.”
Oklahoma will counter this weekend with a pair of freshman starters. Lefty Cord Rager (4-3, 5.74 ERA) will work the opener Saturday, followed by righty Xander Mercurius on Sunday.
Rager missed several late-season appearances because of a latissimus muscle injury. He returned to throw a career-high six innings with eight strikeouts in a win over Citadel in the opening round of the NCAAs.
The Sooners (36-22) defeated Georgia Tech 15-8 last Sunday and 8-7 in 10 innings Monday in Atlanta to shock the No. 2 overall-seeded Yellow Jackets and advance to the KU Super Regional.
OU fell to LSU 6-2 on May 19 in the Sooners’ only game at the SEC’s postseason tournament. The Sooners had finished in a tie for 11th place in the league during the regular season with a record of 14-16.
OU lost seven of its final 10 games of the SEC regular season. The Sooners lost their last four series in the SEC. But the Sooners have rested and regrouped, enjoying a 10-day break between their one game in the SEC tourney and their regional opener.
Florida went 1-2 against the Sooners in a three-game series from May 1-3 in Gainesville, Florida. After that series, OU went 1-2 versus Arkansas May 8-10 in Fayetteville, Ark. The Sooners lost 12-2 and 12-8 before winning the finale, 15-10.
The Jayhawks also played Arkansas recently, prevailing 5-3 Saturday and 13-10 Sunday to win the Lawrence regional at Hoglund Ballpark.
“We had a hard-fought battle in Georgia,” OU coach Skip Johnson said on Friday.
“In the regional the kids came through. Everybody’s healthy right now, which is really good. And we’re extremely excited to be here in Lawrence, playing a good baseball team, and just excited to be in the Super Regional.
“I’ve known Dan Fitzgerald for a long time. He’s a good friend. He and his staff do a great job. They put a great team together in the last three or four years since he’s been here. It’s a tough opponent, a tough opponent for us, and we’re looking forward for the opportunity for sure.
Said Fitzgerald: “We’re ready to go. Incredible time of year to be playing baseball. It’s been quite a journey since last August with these guys, and couldn’t be more proud of them. They show up every day, and they compete, and another great challenge ahead of us with a great OU team. Look forward to playing.”
This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 5:10 PM.
