Kansas has played in the NCAA Tournament six times in its history, never at home in Lawrence. That could soon change.
The Jayhawks strengthened their hosting resume by sweeping rival Kansas State in Manhattan to improve to 33-11 overall and 17-4 in the Big 12.
They opened the series with an 18-6 win in seven innings on Friday, jumping on the Cats with five runs in the top of the first and four in the top of the second. On Saturday, Kansas State scored five runs in the bottom of the eighth to take an 8-5 lead, but KU scored five in the top of the ninth to secure the series with a 10-8 win. The Jayhawks completed the sweep — their first in Manhattan since 1963 — with a 9-7 victory on Sunday.
Kansas’ RPI is 12, and it has a 12-3 record in Quad 1 games.
Around the horn
Florida sophomore Aidan King has emerged as a strong contender for SEC Pitcher of the Year honors. On Friday night, King held the powerful Texas A&M offense to four hits and two earned runs in eight innings to lead the Gators to a 9-2 win.
Over his last four starts — all against teams in the top 10 of last week’s ranking — the Jacksonville native has allowed 13 hits and five earned runs in 28 2/3 innings with 28 strikeouts and just four walks.
For the season, King is 7-2 with a 1.78 ERA and 0.87 WHIP.
Other pitchers in the mix:
Cade Townsend, Ole Miss: 4-1, 2.33 ERA, 0.97 WHIP
Jake Marciano, Auburn: 3-3, 2.04 ERA, 0.87 WHIP
Dylan Volantis, Texas: 6-0, 2.06 ERA, 1.02 WHIP
Tomas Valincius, Mississippi State, 7-1, 2.13 ERA, 1.01 WHIP
Texas freshman reliever Sam Cozart is a long shot to win the award, but he has arguably been the most effective pitcher in the league in 2026. In 39 1/3 innings, Cozart has allowed only 16 hits and has 57 strikeouts and just nine walks.
His current WHIP of 0.64 would be the best in college baseball dating back to at least 2019.
Here’s another impressive stat: Cozart has had a 3-0 count against only three of the 146 batters he’s faced, according to TruMedia.
Georgia maintained its SEC lead by taking two of three at Ole Miss over the weekend — even though the Bulldogs blew an 8-0 lead in Game 1 of the series on Saturday in the first game of a doubleheader.
There have been a lot of standouts on the league’s best offense, but junior catcher Daniel Jackson is putting together a special season. The Wofford transfer leads the SEC in all three triple crown categories — batting average (.380), home runs (21) and RBIs (62) — and this weekend became the first Georgia player ever to have 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in the same season.
What a week for Pitt. On Tuesday, the Panthers beat rival West Virginia in Morgantown for the first time since 2016, doing so in dominating fashion, 23-1. They returned home and swept Virginia by a combined score of 25-8 to improve to 28-14 overall and 10-11 in the ACC.
The four-win week followed a rough stretch that included three consecutive series losses in league play — at home to Wake Forest, at home to Cal (a sweep) and at Virginia Tech.
With an RPI of 45, the Panthers are in the mix for their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1995. Their postseason fate will likely be decided over the next two weeks, with trips to Florida State and North Carolina.
Georgia Tech bounced back from its series loss at North Carolina by sweeping Wake Forest in Atlanta. But it was far from easy.
The Jackets rallied from down 4-0 on Friday night to win 6-5. On Saturday, they fell behind 10-0 after two innings and trailed 11-3 after four but scored the game’s final 11 runs to win 14-11. They completed the sweep with another 6-5 win, scoring the decisive run in the bottom of the eighth on a bases-loaded walk by Vahn Lackey.
Tech is 36-7 overall and 19-5 in the ACC, two games up on North Carolina.
Wake Forest, meanwhile, dropped to 28-17 and 11-13 in the ACC. The Deacs’ RPI is strong (22), but they need to take care of business in their final two ACC series (Louisville and at Duke) to secure their fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament bid.
LSU’s woes continue. The defending national champs have lost nine straight SEC games after getting swept at Mississippi State over the weekend. The Tigers blew a lead in all three games — 7-3 on Friday, 7-2 on Saturday and 8-5 on Sunday.
LSU is 24-21 overall and 6-15 in the SEC with an RPI of 64. The Tigers have not won fewer than 12 league games since the SEC went to a 30-game schedule in 1994. Their worst seasons:
12-17-1 in 2007
13-17 in 2006, 2011, 2021 and 2024
This was Mississippi State’s fifth straight series that involved a sweep. The Bulldogs swept Vanderbilt at home and Ole Miss and South Carolina on the road and got swept at home by Georgia and Tennessee.
Also, think the folks in Starkville like college baseball?
THE FRESHMAN FROM PURVIS, MISSISSIPPI https://t.co/B92nnTrWSI pic.twitter.com/OASFU3l8W4
— Mississippi State Baseball (@HailStateBB) April 26, 2026
Oh, Sacramento State, what could have been!
The Hornets beat No. 1 UCLA 9-6 on Sunday to salvage Game 3 of a weekend series at Jackie Robinson Stadium. It would have been a series win if not for this combination of bad luck and bad defense on Friday night, with Sac State leading by one run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
No. 1 @UCLABaseball walks it off in wild fashion 🤯
Check it out here 👇 pic.twitter.com/OL7HTDULk5
— Big Ten Baseball (@B1Gbaseball) April 25, 2026
The Hornets (20-25 overall, 5-4 in the WAC) won a series at LSU earlier this year and were one play away from recording series wins over the defending national champs and the current No. 1 team in the nation in the same season.
Miami slipped off the national radar after opening ACC play by losing series at home to Boston College and at Duke. But the Canes have won five straight ACC series since and are now 32-12 overall and 12-9 in the league.
The weekend got off to an ominous start for J.D. Arteaga’s club when Rob Evans, the Canes’ No. 1 pitcher, sprained his ankle in the top of the fourth inning while fielding a ground ball.
His status for next week is not known, but the injury didn’t look good.
Welp…. Miami just lost Friday night ace Rob Evans. Looks serious.
Freak injury on a ground ball. 🙏🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/XU6DekEVc3
— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7) April 25, 2026
Expectations might have been a bit high, but Rintaro Sasaki’s freshman season at Stanford was a bit underwhelming. The Japanese slugger hit .269 with an OPS of .790 and seven home runs in 2025, his first in the United States.
His sophomore season is going much better. The average still isn’t great (.263), but he has 14 home runs and an OPS of .998. On Saturday, he had his biggest hit yet, a walk-off grand slam to give the Cardinal a 7-4 win over Florida State to complete an unlikely three-game sweep.
YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS UP… WALK OFF GRAND SLAM TO SWEEP 🫨
Rintaro Sasaki with the BOMB to give @StanfordBSB the 7-4 win and series sweep over No. 8 FSU!#NCAABaseball x 🎥 ACCNXpic.twitter.com/Z1O1G0Oi5s
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) April 26, 2026
With three weekends remaining, there are four mid-major teams in the top 30 of the RPI.
No. 8 Southern Miss (31-13, 13-8 Sun Belt)
No. 17 Coastal Carolina (30-13, 17-4 Sun Belt)
No. 23 Missouri State (26-15, 14-7 Conference USA)
No. 28 East Carolina (28-16-1, 12-6 American)
And finally
• Coastal Carolina right-hander Cameron Flukey returned to action after missing two-plus months due to a stress fracture in his ribs. The junior, expected to be a top-10 pick in the 2026 MLB Draft, got the start on Sunday and pitched two scoreless innings in the Chanticleers’ 10-6 loss to Texas State. He allowed two hits, struck out four and didn’t walk anyone while throwing 24 pitches.
• Clemson is in last place in the ACC at 6-14 after getting swept at Louisville.
• Texas A&M was 2-4 in the SEC after losing series to Oklahoma and Georgia. The Aggies are now 14-6 and a half-game behind Georgia in the race for the regular-season title.
• Purdue’s at-large hopes took a hit by losing three games at USC. The Boilermakers dropped to 27-15 overall and 15-9 in the Big Ten with an RPI of 65.
• UTSA, UAB and East Carolina are tied atop the American Conference at 12-6. UTSA and UAB meet in the final weekend of the season in San Antonio.
• Only two of the top 15 teams nationally in stolen bases play in a Power 4 conference: Duke (third with 128) and Boston College (fourth with 125).
• The top 12 teams nationally in WHIP were all part of the most recent projected NCAA Tournament field at D1baseball.com — Auburn, UCLA, Texas, Oregon State, UCSB, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Oregon, UCF, USC, Ole Miss and Florida.