Super Regional notebook: Kansas and Oklahoma meet for trip to CWS
Former Big 12 foes Kansas and Oklahoma will meet in Lawrence with a trip to the College World Series on the line. Dan Fitzgerald, Dominic Voegele, Dariel Osoria, and Riane Ritter met with the media after the Jayhawks’ open practice on Friday. They discussed the excitement of playing supers at home and facing a red-hot Oklahoma lineup.
Jayhawks glad to have the chance to play at Hoglund Ballpark
Oklahoma’s upset win over Georgia Tech meant Kansas will play at least two more games in front of its home fans this season. The Jayhawks will face a Sooner team they rooted for on Monday, knowing how important the home environment has been for them.
“We definitely celebrated a little bit whenever we saw the guy hit the walk-off home run,” Voegele said of his reaction to Oklahoma’s win. “I mean, playing at home for us is obviously a huge advantage because of the crowd that we have here.”
Over the regional weekend, above-capacity crowds filled Hoglund Ballpark thanks to The Backyard, which added additional general admission seating in the outfield. For supers, The Backyard Decks have been added to give fans seating opportunities in right field. Fitzgerald said the energy surrounding Kansas baseball has continued to grow.
“It’s been amazing, and the way our administration has responded with, to build that backyard pretty quick, and now I’ve noticed we’ve got stuff going up at right field too,” Fitzgerald said. “I think the energy around everything here right now is, it’s just fantastic. So it’ll be an awesome environment.”
Last weekend, Kansas set attendance records as it swept the first-ever Lawrence Regional. Fitzgerald thinks this weekend could be even more special.
“You know, last weekend there are moments where you thought, man this is tough to top,” Fitzgerald said. “But I certainly anticipate it being really special tomorrow.”
Kansas pitching tasked with red-hot Oklahoma lineup
Oklahoma has built its offense with the “ChaOUs” mindset, stealing bases at a successful rate (117/138) and sometimes playing small ball. Yet, the Sooners found some power in Atlanta, slugging .571, well over their season average of .477.
Ritter said slowing down Oklahoma comes down to execution. The sophomore-right hander pitched four innings of one-run ball in the regional, striking out eight Arkansas Razorbacks.
“I think one of the philosophies we have is just kind of keep doing what we’re doing and execute what we execute,” Ritter said. “I feel like from here on out, it’s all gonna be great offenses with great hitters. It’s gonna be more executing on our part, and that’s kind of all we can do.”
Kansas will look to start the weekend with another strong start from Voegele. The Jayhawk ace played the part against Northeastern with a seven-inning quality start with nine strikeouts. His strong starts lately have fueled the rest of the pitching staff.
“Seeing like, especially like Dom giving us a good start showing us kind of how it’s done and giving everybody else like a blueprint to like how to attack these hitters has been really fun,” Ritter said.
