Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Breaking Down Kansas Jayhawks Pitching & Hitting Ahead of Super Regional vs Oklahoma Sooners

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

Breaking down Kansas Jayhawks Baseball's pitching, hitting and overall team performance behind a crazy Hoglund Ballpark crowd with Kevin Wheeler of the Jayhawk Radio Network and former KU pitcher. Wheeler and Derek Johnson discuss the performances of players like Domonic Voegele, Manning West, Boede Rahe, Tyson LeBlanc, Brady Ballinger and more, as Kansas gets ready to host the Oklahoma Sooners in the Super Regional round of the 2026 NCAA Baseball Tournament. Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast   FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's a gigantic week for KU baseball. They're hosting a super regional against former Big 12 foe, the Oklahoma Sooners. We're going to break it down with the Jayhawks color analyst from the radio booth. Kevin Wheeler, former Jayhawk pitcher will help us get the inside on this Jayhawk team headed into a very important week for KU. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team, Every day. What's going on?

Derek Johnson here with Kevin Wheeler. You can catch Kevin on the radio broadcast with Brian Haney, the voice of the Jayhawks as KU takes on Oklahoma in the Super Regional. We're going to break it down with Kevin. We'll get to the pitching side of things, players to watch, the hitting side of things. Let's start with what happened this past weekend, Kevin. KU wins the Lawrence Regional and they do it without losing a game. What about the week? that was kind of felt like a continuation of what they've shown this season.

And I don't know, was there anything that maybe surprised you at all from what we saw this past week? It was one of the greatest baseball weekends. Definitely in KU baseball history. It had so much fun out there this weekend. This team has been really special to watch all season long. They started out losing their first game of the year and just responded by coming back and fighting. They lost a couple of tough series this year, but they only had. responded by having 10 game, 11 game, and now another 11 game winning streaks. This team

knows how to respond. They're not, they're grateful for everything they have. A lot of these players come from the junior college ranks. And I mean, they've been playing in front of crowds of 20, 25 people at most. What they had in Lawrence at Hogan Ballpark this weekend was just, it was something, it gave me goosebumps pretty much the whole weekend. And I love the way Jayhawk Nation, showed out. They came and they were loud. There was, there were some loud moments. One that comes into mind when Brady Ballinger comes in off the bench. The crowd just erupted the alumni of the students. And it was great to see him back on the ball field. When Ryan Ritter came into the ball game, when the Jayhawks were down by a few runs, he came in throwing some smoke, 96, 97, 98, three straight fastballs. And I've never heard Hogan Ballpark erupt like that. in my life. A lot of high fives up in the press box. And be honest, we couldn't see a whole lot this whole weekend because the crowd was standing up, jumping around, going crazy. We had to go a lot by what the reaction of the crowd was just by how we would know what happened on the field.

But it was the best thing. I've been around KU baseball for quite a while now. I've had some big games, but there's nothing been what we had last weekend and really excited to go for this upcoming weekend. Well, how impactful can that be? Like, I mean, you've pitched at KU. Like, how important can home field advantage? Can it, can it rat? I mean, there was a moment to me where it felt like Arkansas, you know,

one of their new pitchers walked in a run for KU. And that felt like he was rattled by the crowd. I guess how impactful can a really good crowd be? Yeah, we've seen it throughout the years on the road. I've played at places like LSU played at. A&M, Texas, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, those are really good home crowds. And you know going into those games that you're not going to get the benefit of the doubt on the calls. Anything right on the black of the plate, you're going to get rung up.

Just by even these are the best umpires, but having that crowd, you're going to get a little bit of the closer calls. And I'd notice that this weekend at Hogan, not so much they got the closer calls. but usually if the crowd's going wild, every out is magnified and the crowd loves it. This weekend, every pitch was magnified. Ball strike, you could tell by the reaction of the crowd what the call was and it was so nice. I could tell the crowd really pumped up the team.

These guys were so pumped up to play and playing as hard as they could. Guys diving all over the place, guys hustling as much as they could. And it was so much fun. Got to see a lot of old friends, a lot of old, a lot of people that are big time Jayhawk fans that might not be able to go to all the sport events because of price they were able to come to Hogan Ballpark and see some baseball. It was a magical experience. And some I'm never going to forget.

The biggest game I pitched there at Hogan Ballpark was against Texas. We needed that game against Hogguggan-Grido to get into the Big 12 tournament. And that was the first time, KU'd ever even made the Big 12 tournament. I was able to pitch the first pitch of that tournament. It was such a big deal to our program at that time. And just think about all the teams and Coach Price and going back to Coach Bingham, really proud of this team right now. And it's not so much their record of what they've won, but it's how they play the game.

It's the way that they play the game. The way Dominic Bagley throws the ball as mechanics are major league level style, the way these guys, Brady Ballinger, these guys compete at the plate, and it's pretty much one through nine. It's not just one guy. Tyson LeBlanc might be an All-American this year, but he leads the way to a bunch of guys with really a lot of confidence. And I know Oklahoma is going to have a lot of confidence, too, but pretty fortunate that they won being able to go back and play at Hoagland again, sat down after the series with guys like Dominic Vagley, Boeh, Boie Reyes. They're just sitting down there looking at the field after the game and say, man, this might be the last time we ever get to play and pitch here. And I'm just so grateful that we get to see them do it again one more weekend. Yeah.

And, you know, I guess looking back at this week of pitching for KU, how would you grade out as a former pitcher yourself, what KU was able to get done on the mount? I've been so impressed with the pitching. Before the game, it was kind of ironic. I was up there in the booth with Brian Haney, but right in front of me was Wilson Kilmer, my old pitching coach, Ryan Graves, my old pitching coach at KU, and then Coach Scott was up in the crowd,

recruiting our scouting a little bit from the previous game, and all three of the pitching coaches up there, and all right in front of me, and it just gave me a lot of memories. I've seen some great pitchers in my day here. There's been some awesome ones. One that comes to mind when I was playing, was Pete Smart, 6-6-Leffey that was just dominant.

T.J. Wall sat right in front of us. He's the all-time strikeout leader. For now. For now, if Dom keeps going, he could really, in three years, what Dom has done has been phenomenal. But the pitching side, I love the starting pitching of the Jayhawks. Fitz loves the starting pitching, but he said all year long that the strength of this team has been in the bullpen.

And the way that he designed this team, team was out of his best five pitchers. He wanted one of the three of those best three to be in the bullpen and two out of the five of his best pitchers to be in the bullpen. So you have three good starters, but you have two of the best pitchers in the country coming out of the pen. Manning West came in a spot when the Jayhawks were losing and he did a great job. He probably threw 90% cutters. He just got off the barrel of a really tough Arkansas team. He led the way throwing up a couple zero's. Ryan Ritter came in and he had one of the best pitching performances I've seen him have. He bumped up his velocity, three miles an hour, got the juices flowing. He was amped up.

And it reminded me of a lot of major league when they brought in a wild thing, Ricky Vaughn, and the crowd just going nuts and 96, 97, 98 against a big time power hitter. And that crowd, I can still hear that crowd going. A guy working next to me, Brian Haney, one of the best. He kept saying, man, it's getting loud in here, Kevin. And Brian, we're outside, man. This is an outdoor thing. So he's been in some huge venues, Allen Fieldhouse everywhere. But that was about as loud and passionate and informed a crowd as I've ever seen.

Okay. So you mentioned some of the cutters thrown by Manning West. I'm curious if you had to put together a shortlist of some of the best individual pitches of the KU staff this year. So, you know, again, like, for instance, you could use Manning West's Cutter or, I don't know, Dom Vagley's fastball or whatever it would be. Like, what comes to mind for you? Okay. First of all, Dom Vagley, he's my number one. So I first saw him pitch.

That's if you, he was born to throw the baseball. If you're going to teach a kid out of throw baseball, I would just watch Don Vagley. His mechanics are absolutely perfect. He's 1.0 to home plate. They played a team in Northeastern who led the country and sold bases. They only attempted one. stolen base on him because he's so quick to home plate. He's got all the weapons you need. He can feel this position. Mid to upper 90s on his fastball. He throws two different fast balls.

His slider spin rate. I've seen it at 26, 2,700 for most college pitchers. I've seen Don Bagley between 3,3,100 on his spin rate for his slider. Big time major league level stuff. And I love the way he throws. I'm happy he's getting the ball. The next guy I'd like to talk about is Toby Shite, guy from Columbia, Missouri with a sidearm delivery, ton of movement on his fastball. But that slider, he's so low on his arm angle that that slider actually goes uphill and rises. It's just a nasty pitch one time through the order. Manning West with that cutter was more than effective. He's got the composure.

And I think Ryan Ritter has probably the best fastball, straight fastball on the team where he can come in. and he's got the most appearances in the country. So obviously he is big time trusted by the coaching staff. He's a bridge type guy set up where you can come in and set up Bodey Ray. And we saw a heck of a lot of Botey Ray this weekend. Three saves where he came in for multiple innings, two outs at two inning saves. And what he did, he just pitches with his heart. Nothing but heart.

He has got a great fastball, great curveball. But by far the best change up on the team. I call it a parachute pitch because that thing just never gets to home plate. And it looks identical. When he's throwing a high fastball compared to his change up, those pitches tunnel in the same way. And they're about halfway to home plate. You can't tell which pitch it is. One of them ends up about chest level and one doesn't even make it to home plate.

So it's just an outstanding mix. And that's kind of the guy. He's the alpha on the team and Bodie Ray. He's the guy that if you can get the ball in his hand, that that's what you want. And he's nothing but a competitive nature and just the ultimate Jayhawks student athlete. All right. Well, let's get into some of the hitters.

We're going to take a quick time out. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Today's episode is brought to you by Fanduel. The NBA playoffs are here. And every possession matters. If you're looking to get even closer to the action during the finals, both the Stanley Cup and the NBA playoffs, Fanduel has a great offer to get you started.

Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet, wins. That's right. Turn five bucks and $150 and bonus bets just for getting started. Whether you're looking at player props or following your favorite stars, it adds another level excitement to the game. So if you want to put together a triple double alert for Victor Wembeyanama

or if you want to put together a game where Jalen Brunson scores 40 points, you can put those together over at Fandul. Plus, they're constantly putting boosts out there to add a little extra value to some of your different placements. Head over to fendual.com to get started today. That is Fandual. your game with the official sportsbook partner of the Locked-on podcast network.

Thanks again for joining us here on Locked-on Jayhawks with Kevin Wheeler. I'm Derek Johnson. Don't forget you enjoying the everydayer club locked-onjahawks. com. Okay, so Kevin, some of the hitters, just like the pitchers, awesome stories, awesome guys. And has there been a better, I don't know, maybe even in like the entire college baseball realm this year story than Tyson LeBlanc and the season that he is having? And, you know, you've lived some Kansas baseball history.

You've been around the KU baseball program for a while. I mean, there have been hitters who have hit, you know, over 400. There have been hitters who have put together incredible, you know, on base or slugging percentages in a single season. But what he has done in terms of the team success mixed with the individual success, would it be crazy to say that LeBlon is having the greatest single season in KU program? history from a hitting perspective. That's a great point. I've thought about that since I first saw Tyson a Blanc put on a jersey and first saw him

play. I thought a total stud. I thought the way he played, the way he works. I've never seen a guy work so hard in batting practice on his bunning, on his hitting to all fields. That guy is just a complete total worker. He comes from a program in LSU Eunice that one of the best junior colleges in the country where they won a national championship.

So Kit is just an absolute winner. I think a big change in this season happened late when Fitz moved Tyson, LeBlock, into that leadoff spot. And he just gets more and more at bats with every game. He's been great getting on base, getting over, getting in, and his power is just phenomenal. The last thing I said on our broadcast was, that's the best baseball player I've ever seen put on a uniform at the University of Kansas. And it was just because of his performance, pretty much in this postseason, what he showed down in Arizona at the Big 12 tournament. And now in regionals, he's a big time player.

He steps up in big time situations. And this program has had some great hitters in the past. I used to call it Shortstop U because every year there was just a nasty shortstop coming through from Richie Price to Maui, Huna, tons of other Matt McLaughlin. There's been a number of great shortstops play here. And this is one of the best, if not the best I've ever seen. This program is really taken off with their base on balls, seeing more pitches and with the home run. So I think those two things go hand in hand.

They're hitting in a lot of 20, 3-1-1-0 counts where they're seeing good pitches to hit and they're being very physical with it. Got an opportunity in Arizona at the Big 12 turn would be right up close and personal with their batting practice. And these guys are put together. This team is strong. They have a really good weight training program, but might not be able to tell from the crowd or on TV. But these guys are all in great shape, really physical. And one through nine, by far the best power hitting team I've ever seen here at Kansas. Before last season, the home run record was in the 70s, I believe.

And last year, KU had an outstanding lineup pretty much right-handed dominance. it. A lot of righties in that lineup, but they hit over a hundred home runs. It's just a great team. This year, Fitz added a switch hitter and Cade Baldridge, added three really good left-handed bats and Jordan Bach and Josh Gajikoff and Tice Owens. Those guys can absolutely rake and have a lot of juice in their bats and brought a lot to this team. So last year's team had a lot of power, a lot of right-handed power. This year's team, they can go left. left to right, left to right, all the way through the order. Really tough to pitch to.

And if you're going one through nine, every one of those guys can jack it out of the park. So I love the way this lineup set up. There's been guys that step in. Savion Flowers had one of the biggest hits of the season to beat Baylor at the Big 12th tournament. And I think that allowed KU to get a hosting spot was winning that game.

There's been other guys who stepped in. Max O'Leese is a very good hitter with some power. and he's got limited opportunities, but when he has that opportunities, he has hit some home runs and some big RBIs. But I think Tyson LeBlanc, he really gets everything going. But I love the way everyone competes. There's a hard fought at bats. They face guys like Ethan Lund for Oklahoma State, Max Yale from West Virginia, now Deeds for Arkansas. Those guys are all 98 left-handed pitchers, probably three of the top left-handed pitchers in the country.

and this Jayhawk team has seen as good as it gets with the lineup, and they've competed every single day. It doesn't matter if they're doing good, doing bad. You couldn't tell the difference. They're just competing. I'd say they're a hardworking team, but they're the kind of team that lineup that I didn't like to face when I was pitching. I can tell you that much.

Yeah, that's for sure. And, you know, I don't know, and you look at Brady Ballinger dealing with the handmade injury. You look at Kate Baldridge, who you mentioned, he's dealing with an injury now. It sounds like they're going to, both be good to go this week. We obviously saw Brady this past weekend. But how much of that do you think is just something that they're going to have to play through pain and, you know, to where other guys

can kind of step up around them as well, but they can be in there to, you know, provide their kind of heart and soul to the lineup as well. Yeah, this Jayhawk team, it's set up heavy with on the pitching staff. There's a lot of pitchers on this team. And as position players go, there's maybe one, two extra players besides the guys out there on the field. So, It's a look guys know when they're going to go out there and play a couple guys on the bench that think they have a good shot of getting in the game. But I think as a whole, Coach Fitch, Coach Coyne, one of the best recruiting coordinators in the country, they went heavy on the pitching side and it's really paid off this year. I still have goosebumps from when Brady Ballinger came in the game. I've never seen a player more receptive to the crowd, to the alumni, to the students.

When he came in the ball game, the crowd just erupted like he just hit a grand slam. And he went out there with his arm up. And I think you'd have to cut his arm off to make him not play in this super regional. He's that kind of player. And it's not even so much of stats. The homers, it's his attitude and the way that he plays the game. It's the infectious way that he has fun. I thought a really good quote by Fitz.

He talked with LSU coach, his former employer before the game, about a little bit of about Arkansas. Coach Jawsen said, you know, the team that controls their pulse, their heart rate, the best is going to win this game. And what Fitz relayed to the team was the first team that goes out and has some fun is going to win this game. And I think that Jayhawks had a lot of fun this weekend. And that's just, I thought that was just some great coaching.

That's right. Well, Kevin, I appreciate the time, man, have so much fun calling the game this weekend on the radio or games. Absolutely. I appreciate you having me on and have a great rest of your week. Rock Shock. Don't forget and join the Everydayer Club locked on jhocks.supercast.com. You can get the ad-free version of LOJ. So thank you to Kevin for joining the show here.

And, you know, I thought a couple of those were really informative. We're going to get to our KU Oklahoma preview later in the week. We'll have that come out. Plan is for that to come out on Friday. We'll have a football Friday episode. And we'll have the preview for the Super Regional for KU Oklahoma as coming out on Friday. And him talking about Dom vaguely and his quick time to home played. I think he said one second. And that helps, you know, KU avoid Northeastern from just running ragged all over

them, right? Where Northeastern was 0 for one on stolen base attempts against KU. And you look at Northeastern, like best stealing team in the country. Oklahoma isn't the best stealing team in the country, but they're a very good stealing team. I think among the teams in the field, their top 10, I think ninth in stolen bases among the 64 teams in the field. So they're very good at getting steals. They get it from a handful of guys in the lineup, which makes them dangerous. And obviously, Dom Vagley is not going to pitch every inning and every game of the Super Regional. But that can at least help you in the one game that Dom Vagley is going to be pitching,

which I would imagine is going to be the first game and Saturday. So that could be good for KU there. The other thing that you heard Kevin talking about a lot was the walks and that this team was really patient, and did a good job working count. and working walks and, you know, taking those free passes and turning them into, you know, you get a walk and then you hit a two-run home runoff of it, being able to take advantage of that. Well, that is the one big bugaboo for the Oklahoma pitching staff. Like Oklahoma actually does a decent job striking people out and, you know,

when you look at some of the, I don't know, like the Sierra numbers, like they have a really good pitching staff and stuff. But one of the biggest things that has hurt Oklahoma's pitching staff this season has been their walk rate, specifically from the starters, the walk numbers have been very, very high. Like they're one of the lower ranked teams in the field of 64 teams in terms of walking the opposition. And so that means they're going to give opportunities for KU to take walks. Can you be patient enough in a big moment where you're wanting to rip the cover off the baseball and, you know, be the hero in a super regional?

Can you be the hero by doing your job and taking the free passes that are going to be allowed? you would think by Oklahoma this week. That is probably a good thing for KU as well. Okay, let's get to our trivia question of the day. Yesterday's question was this walk-on KU guard got first half playing time in the Jayhawks 2002 Sweet 16 game against Illinois when Bill Self was coaching the fighting of Linae. The correct answer is Brett Ballard.

Brett Ballard obviously went on to have an illustrious coaching career now at Washburn and he's done phenomenal things with the Iqabods, but Brett Ballard was the correct answer. They're getting first half real playing time in a Sweet 16 game. All right, today's question that we'll get to on tomorrow's show, Sasha Khan, who is back at the Rock Truck Roundball Classic with the game happening on Thursday night. You can get tickets to 23rd Street Brewery or a bunch of the different Johnny's locations. Sasha Khan went a perfect six for six to help Kansas win a game against what opponent in the 2008,

NCAA tournament. Again, Sasha Con won a perfect six for six to help Kansas win a game against what opponent in the 2008 NCAA tournament. All right, that'll be it for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. See you tomorrow for KU Football Friday and at KU Oklahoma Super Regional's preview next time on LJ.