Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - CLASH: LeBlanc, Voegele Look to CARRY Kansas in Regional vs Northeastern, Arkansas & Missouri State

Episode Date: May 29, 2026

Kansas Jayhawks eye Super Regional glory as they host the Lawrence Regional—with power hitting and dominant pitching at the core of their NCAA Tournament campaign. Can Tyson LeBlanc shatter records and carry KU past the pesky base-stealing Northeastern Huskies and the battle-tested arms of Arkansas and Missouri State? Derek Johnson breaks down key pitching duels, including Dominic Voegele's showdown with Luc Rising, and reveals the crucial stats, like Northeastern’s ground-ball wizardry and Kansas’ top-20 home run prowess. Get insights into lineup strengths, bullpen aces, and pitching pitfalls for all four teams, plus critical players to watch in clutch moments. The Lawrence Regional just got a lot more interesting—will Jayhawk power or Arkansas’ pitching depth reign supreme, and can Missouri State’s offense offset their mound struggles? The road to Omaha starts now. 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   RugietGet 15% off your treatment → https://rugiet.com/lockedonnhlRugiet. Performance medicine for men. 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.

How can Kansas get through the Lawrence Regional and make it to a super regional we break down the first couple games of the NCAA tournament for Jayhawks baseball? 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 up, Derek Johnson, with another episode of Locked on Jayhawks. We're going to break down everything in the Lawrence Regional from players to watch for Kansas. Kansas to scouting reports on all the four teams in Lawrence. And we'll start right here with keys to the first game for KU taking on Northeastern. It was announced earlier today that Dominic vaguely is going to be taken on Luke

Rising in the battle of the pitchers here. We'll see what happens with the rain and the weather. Will everything go on time? Will it get delayed? How will the potential weather impact both teams in terms of, you know, does it make it harder to run for Northeastern? Does it affect the hitting? How does it affect the grip on the baseball for the pitcher?

So a lot to kind of get to from that. But vaguely 5 and 3, 601 ERA. He gives up a few more hits, 1.41 whip and occasionally loud contact. But the strikeout to walk rate is good. His 28.4% K rate is elite. Like Paul Skeens is at 28% in the MLB. His peripheral numbers look really good and tell a tale of that he's been a little unlucky with some of the ERA stuff.

But over his last seven starts, he has been feeling it. You're talking 3.66 ERA, 69 strikeouts over seven starts. So basically 10 per game compared to 13 walks. The other side, rising pitching for Northeastern, 5 and 4. He's got a 3.24 ERA in 12 starts and 15 appearances over 77 and 23rd. They need to work. Really good whip at 1.06. Doesn't allow a lot of hard contact.

It has almost a 4 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio. and a solid strikeout rate. The peripherals aren't as good as say vaguely, but the real ERA is actually better. He did get a couple power five games in. He blanked LSU in four and a third innings pitch, though LSU normally really good, was not very good this year.

He did struggle against Nebraska, only went a little over two innings and give up a couple runs in that one. But over his last five starts, three of them, he's had nine or more strikeouts. And over his last eight appearances, he's only given up a total of 13 earned runs. So could be a really good pitching matchup here.

Kansas, more of the power hitting team, Northeastern, more of the stolen base type of team here. Now, one key stat to know in this one, 16 of Northeastern's 20 losses this year. So 80% of them have come when the opponent scored five or more runs. Can Kansas find a way to get to that mark? And again, how does the rain kind of affect that? Now, the keys for Kansas win, this one,

let's start with strike one. Be patient waiting for your pitch. gives up a lot of contact as a pitching staff, but what they excel at is limiting the punch of that contact. They have just a 234 opponent batting averages here, which puts them in the 95th percentile nationally, with a really high ground ball rate, nearly 46%. So they give up a lot of contact,

but a lot of it is weak. It's on the ground, and that's going to make things tough for KU, right? Who is going to see strikes, they're going to see pitches in the zone. The key is going to be understanding which pitches in the zone. you can do damage with. You might have to take a strike if it's a pitch that you can't do damage with. Obviously, if it's two strikes, you got to deal with it. But, you know, not being overly aggressive

and leading to a bunch of just easy ground ball outs. Strike two is slow the running game by throwing strikes because Northwestern is the best stealing team in the country. They get on base and then they stress you once they're on base. And the way to counter this, obviously when they're on base, slide steps, pitch outs, pickoffs, good throws from home plate. to second base with Swift tags. But above all, you know what the best way to avoid a steal is? Don't let anybody get on base, right? And just keep them from getting those free passes.

And that's where Northeastern having a strong walk rate comes into play. They get on base at a really good number. And so I think that's going to be the key for KU. Don't give up the free passes. Don't give up the walks in a matchup like this. I think the more of a kind of power game this becomes, the better it is for Kansas, the more of a small ball game it is, the better it probably is for Northeastern.

Strike three here is don't let Harrison Feinberg beat you deep. So Northeastern is fine at hitting home runs overall, but it's mostly from one dude. Harrison Feinberg, he is hitting 3.30 this year. He's got an OPS over 1,000. He has 16 home runs on the season. Feinberg's been an excellent player for Northeastern this year. That accounts for nearly a third of the team's home runs this season. He's doubled up second most on the team.

He's tripled up everybody else or more on the team. So that means if you can keep Feinberg from going deep, the odds, the chances that another player goes deep are much lower. It doesn't mean it can't happen, but they're much lower than Feinberg doing it. So if you can keep Feinberg from going deep, you have a much better chance to keep in the ball in the ballpark. And for a northeastern team that already has other ways they can beat you, that would certainly be helpful to keep it in the ballpark as well.

Let's get to scouting the regional. to all the teams in the Lawrence Regional, what the biggest strength and weaknesses from a hitting and pitching perspective. This is locked on Jayhawks. We're brought to you today by Indeed, workplace chaos, deadline, stacking up inbox overflowing,

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Don't forget and join the everyday air club where you can get the ad free version of the show at locked on jhawks. Dot supercast.com. Locked on jhawks. That's scouting the Lawrence Regional. Let's start with the Kansas Jayhawks, right? We're going to get to our biggest hitting strength, weakness, and same for the pitching here.

Let's start with for KU. the biggest hitting strength has got to be power throughout the lineup. They have a good depth of lineup. And as a team, KU's top 30 nationally in slugging and OPS, their top 20 in home runs, four players with 14 or more bombs. They've eight players with seven or more bombs. Like on the flip side, Northeastern has two, you know. So it's a depth of home run hitters, Brady Ballinger back this week.

He was taking batting practice. That's good news. Hopefully he's, you know, hopefully the injury doesn't hinder him in being back as well. but KU's top 10 among tournament teams in Big Flies. That is their biggest strength, I think, and the fact that it comes from multiple different spots led by Tyson-Leblon. The biggest hitting hole for KU, can they win a game without the Big Fly, right? KU ranked eighth in the Big 12s and more middle of the pack if you look at average.

They ranked ninth in the Big 12 in strikeouts. So again, by those numbers, they're more average. It's the amount of walks, extra base hits, and power that have propelled KU. But now there were in a smaller sample size, where crazy things can happen, you're one or two games of not hitting home runs and not being able to manufacture runs from going home. Doesn't mean it'll happen. It's just, you know, the nature of the beast, right? The biggest pitching strength for KU is strikeouts while avoiding walks. KU's top 40 nationally in strikeout minus walk percentage. That's a good place to be because you're preventing the

ball from getting in play where it can hurt you and you're avoiding giving the free passes, right? And so KU has a 3.62 Sierra as a team, which is Sierra is basically a, it's almost like a projected ERA based on the quality of contact that you're giving up and what it should be. And that's kind of an excellent measure of, you know, how good this staff is. And obviously the ERA is higher than that, which can be accounted for by, you know, ballpark and teams you're playing against and maybe being a little bit unlucky. and maybe if you're giving up a lot of home runs or stuff like that. But point being, KU's done a really good job at that so far this season. Biggest pitching pothole for KU, they've struggled with runners on base. So KU's outside the top 140 nationally and left on base percentage.

And part of the issue is that for KU, when they do give up contact because they throw so many strikes and avoid those walks and get the strikeouts, sometimes it ends up being harder contact, right? And so you get to a two-out approach potentially or you get to a runner on base approach. maybe you shorten up a little bit, maybe the strikeouts go down, maybe the contact goes up. I don't know. That would be one potential guess. It could just be that Kansas has been unlucky with runners in scoring position. Like that's a number that a lot of times cannot be sticky year to year.

You'll see a pitcher have a lower left on base percentage one year and a better than next year, even though they're pretty much the same around it. Maybe that's something that can change in this tournament because if Kansas does limit the left on base or leaves a lot of runners on base for the opponent pitching, they've got the other stuff in their bag, right? And that would be one of those numbers that why the Sierra would be lower than the ERA. But if it does come down to those sorts of things and that continues in this tournament, right? Like if you're talking close games in a tournament setting,

cashing guys in when they're on base and, you know, that's kind of the name of the game in postseason baseball. Okay, Arkansas, for them, their biggest hitting strength is power. They're 13th among the tournament field and home runs hit. Their top 20 nationally. So very powerful hitting lineup. The biggest hitting hole for them is hitting for contact. They're hitting 274, which sounds like it's really good,

but at the collegiate baseball level, it is outside the top 170, and it's only 52nd among tournament teams so far this season. It also ranks last among the four teams in the Lawrence Regional, and a big reason why is strikeouts. They are 278 nationally in walk minus strikeout percentage with the stick in their hands. So they are susceptible to striking out and, you know, not having a big day in terms of contact.

The biggest pitching strength for Arkansas is pretty much everything. This is the best pitching team in this regional. They throw a lot of strikes. They have a low opponent average. They strike guys out. They don't have a big walk rate. And overall, it leads them having the best ERA, Sierra, expected FIP, and runs allowed per game of anybody in Lawrence this weekend. And that includes ranking top 25 in the tournament field in all those categories.

And that's doing that in the SEC. So very good pitching team. And they are saving their ace for game too, which could go out. either way. If they lose game one to Missouri State, which they have another really good pitcher. But if they lose game one to Missouri State, then, you know, in your Kansas and you can beat Northeastern, then you avoid that ace in a game two setting. But theoretically, if you were to play Arkansas in a game two and they have their ace that makes things more challenging. Good news for KU is Mason Cook, who would be going in game two, has been kind of a co-ace here and has been

pitching very well for KU. But the biggest pitching pothole for Arkansas, occasionally when they do give up contact, it can be very hard contact. They can. can at times have a bit of a home run problem in terms of their, you know, high home run per fly ball ratio. So again, they don't give up a ton of hits, but when they do, sometimes they can go pretty far. For Missouri State, their biggest hitting strength is making contact with a thump. They're a huge power team, their top 15 nationally and top 10 among teams in the field and home runs hit. But they're also top 15 among the 64 teams in the field in batting average. This is maybe the, I don't know, like they might be the most well-rounded hitting team.

that's in this regional. Then again, you could say they weren't doing it against, you know, power competition like Kansas or Arkansas, but still, when you look at the biggest hitting hole, I mean, it's hard to pick one here for Missouri State. If you do want to nitpick,

maybe you would just say it's the level of competition each and every game, but they usually play really good teams in some of their, you know, non-con games. They can get a bit to strike out with happy at times as an offense, but like, I don't know, man. Their top 15 nationally in OPS,

slugging, WRC Plus, Wobah, like any offensive team stat that you want. The biggest pitching strength for them is getting ground balls. They have a 47% ground ball rate that's really strong. The biggest pitching pothole for them is they give up a lot of powerful hits and home runs. They do well to get grounders. They pound the zone.

But when you square it up and they do flood the zone, it can go on a certain days. So like in general, you know, this is the last ranking school among these four that are in the Lawrence Regional in ERA and runs aloud per game. They're also outside the top 50 among tournament teams. So, like, you could make the case that Missouri State might be the best hitting team of this four, but they might also be the worst pitching team of this four, potentially, which makes it interesting because Arkansas might be the best pitching team of the four and might be like the third best hitting team.

And then Kansas might just be like second at both, you know? Northeastern then you have, for them, their biggest hitting strength is they are pesky at the plate. their top 45 in the country and walk minus K percentage. So they battle through counts. They take walks. And then obviously they get steals off them, which is their biggest strength is their ability to steal bases where they're number one in the country.

The biggest hitting hole for them, not a ton of power, especially outside of Feinberg, as I talked about as a team, they're outside the top 150 and slugging percentage. If you take Feinberg out, it dips even lower, obviously. Biggest pitching strength for Northeastern, they prevent hard. hard contact. Top 35 in the country in WIP, walks and hits per innings pitched, and top 20 nationally in opponent average. And the biggest pitching pothole for them is lack of swing and miss. They're just 125th in the country in K-minus BB percentage from a pitching perspective. So they're going to give up contact. A lot of times it's not very hard contact. We'll see how patient and,

well, Kansas can handle that with the twig in their hands. All right, let's finish up players to watch for the Kansas Jayhawks this week. Thanks again for joining us. You can check out the everyday club for the ad free version of the show at locked on jhawks dot supercast.com also check out our we did an interview with a henry green sign from the lawrence general world talking k u baseball both small and big picture we talked to brian hainey the voice of the jhawks to get some player stories and team stories and stuff so check out those episodes if you haven't already right here with locked on jhawks um so players to watch for kansas i mean quick side note brady bollinger like what does he look like coming back from the injury is he the same guy or is he impacted by the entry right uh but we got to start with tyson leblon

who is KU's best player. He leads Kansas in OPS over 1100, which is incredible. He's leading Kansas an average, slugging home runs, RBI, steals. His K-to-walk percentage is awesome. He's already tied for the program record for individual home runs in a season. One more to get that mark to himself. And he's coming off a big 12th tournament MVP where he went 8 of 13. Let's see what he can do in this moment, too.

Augusto Mungariata becomes our second player to watch here, right? The first thing you think of with the KU catcher is when you're taking on As good as they are stealing bases, how is he going to be on the defensive side? But he's an excellent hitting catcher as well. Mungarieta is hitting a hair under $300, $2.99. He's got 391 on base percentage, 587 slug. I mean, nearly 1,000 OPS. He got 15 home runs, 47 driven, and he's been awesome this year.

Just feel every year the Dan Fitzgerald there, they just have this awesome slugging catcher. But he's coming off a great, I mean, if not for LeBlon, just being superhuman at the Big 12 tournament, Mungariata might have won big. 12th tournament MVP. He was six of 13, two home runs, four runs scored, five driven in that week. He's got multiple hit games and four of his last five. He's got home runs and three of his last five. So he becomes really important and he's swinging a hot stick coming into this one. From the pitching side, Mason Cook is the first. Obviously, Dom vaguely is KU's ace. He's the first

one out on Friday. That'll be important. But Cook actually has the better ERA and whip than vaguely. And we know Cook is going to be the number two starter for KU here, meaning that that second game becomes so pivotal from a lot of different areas. And this has been Cook's numbers of late over his last five starts. You're talking 28 and a third inning pitched, 31 strikeouts to eight walks with a 2.54 ERA. He has been phenomenal for KU in recent run. And it becomes really important because if Kansas loses the first game to Northeastern, that now means Mason Cook is pitching an elimination game for Kansas.

Whereas if Kansas wins the first game against Northeastern, that means Mason Cook is pitching. in the driver seat game, so to speak, where whichever team starts 2-0 is in the driver's seat because they have to be beaten twice by somebody else who's going to be burning through a lot of games and pitching staff and then is going to have to beat Kansas two games in a row. So that second game is pivotal one way or another,

and that'll be cook on the bump for that. The other one is Bodie Ray. The Jayhawk closer has a sub-4 ERA. He's got 7-1 record, nine saves. He's KU's leader in WIP, strikeout percentage, and Sierra. And, you know, there's a good chance that he's going to come into a game or two in this regional where it's tied or KU's up one or down one or something and he's going to have to put a zero on the scoreboarding.

He'll have a lot of games where he pitches, you know, four outs or even two innings or something. He's delivered all season, but now it's the brightest light. Can he continue to do it for KU at the back end of the bullpen? All right, that'll do it for this episode of the show. Hope this helped you get ready for the Lawrence Regional. Hope you're going out to a game. I might have some tickets to give away for stuff. We'll see kind of how things work out with the schedule.

and I have tickets to some games, but not all the games. So I might be given away some of those. We'll just keep an eye on that. But that'll do it for this episode of the show. You can find our show anywhere you podcast, including our YouTube page. We'll be back at you with a Football Friday episode as well on Friday, as well as a game recap for whatever happens, which can KU and Northeastern. See you then.