LAWRENCE, Kan. – No. 14 Arkansas (41-22) defeated Northeastern (39-22) 10-9 to escape the losers bracket and advance to the NCAA Lawrence Regional final, but ultimately saw its season end against No. 13 Kansas (45-16), the No. 15 national seed and regional host, with a 13-10 loss Sunday evening at Hoglund Ballpark.

The Hogs conclude the 2026 campaign with a 41-22 overall record, their SEC-best ninth consecutive 40-win season. Arkansas is one of two teams nationally (Southern Miss – 10) to accomplish the feat in nine or more consecutive years.

Despite the offense scoring 20 runs over two games on the day, the Razorback pitching staff struggled to post zeroes. Arkansas survived a late surge by Northeastern to pull out a win in Sunday’s elimination game and punch its ticket to the regional final, where it jumped out to a five-run lead over Kansas before allowing eight unanswered runs in its loss.

Between the two games, Arkansas belted eight home runs, including a pair of long balls by Reese Robinett in the win against Northeastern as well as a pair of homers by Ryder Helfrick in the finale against Kansas. Zack Stewart belted his 14th home run of the season against the Huskies before connecting on his 15th against the Jayhawks later in the day.

With his 15th homer of the year, Stewart became the fourth Razorback player with 15 or more home runs this season, joining Camden Kozeal (20), Helfrick (18) and TJ Pompey (15). Before 2026, Arkansas had never accomplished the feat.

Nolan Souza and Maika Niu also homered Sunday. Souza matched his career high with five RBI, including a two-run blast, against Northeastern, while Niu had career high-matching four hits, including a solo shot, and four RBI against Kansas. As a team, the Razorbacks finished the campaign with 105 home runs, good for fifth most in a season in program history.

Five Razorbacks – Helfrick, Robinett, Souza, Niu and Hunter Dietz, who struck out a career-high 14 batters in Saturday’s loss against Kansas – were named to the Lawrence Regional All-Tournament Team. Arkansas lost a road regional for the first time since 2014 at Virginia after winning its previous two road regionals at Oklahoma State in 2015 and 2022.

For complete coverage of Arkansas baseball, follow the Hogs on Twitter (@RazorbackBSB), Instagram (@RazorbackBSB) and Facebook (Arkansas Razorback Baseball).

LAWRENCE — The mood inside Hoglund Ballpark felt tense Saturday, in the later innings of Kansas baseball’s game against Arkansas.

A highly-anticipated NCAA regional matchup was delivering in all aspects in Lawrence. At first it was Arkansas landing punches, and Kansas that had to counter. And then later it was KU that took control, leaving everyone watching to wonder if Arkansas could counter, too.

But despite the challenges the Razorbacks presented, the Jayhawks (44-16) emerged with a 5-3 victory to secure a chance at winning the NCAA regional on Sunday at 5 p.m. (CT). In a second-straight NCAA tournament appearance, Kansas coach Dan Fitzgerald’s squad has continued to deliver for a fan base that has not lacked energy in the stadium. And while Kansas, the No. 1 seed in this four-team regional, doesn’t know yet if it’ll play No. 2 seed Arkansas or No. 4 seed Northeastern for the regional title, the confidence the Jayhawks can win it should be as high as ever.

How to watch Kansas baseball play for NCAA regional championship

“Another awesome game, awesome college baseball game against a great Arkansas team,” Fitzgerald said. “Unbelievable environment. It’s such an incredible experience to look at it in the micro-level, but then also think about it from 30,000 feet of where we’ve come in four years. The crowd today, I mean, our crowd was absolutely incredible and super proud of these guys. I thought they competed at a super high level and they were poised and they were prepared and, yeah, they just — they loved the moment and that was really fun. Proud of these guys.”

Kansas, which is 2-0 in this regional with wins against Arkansas and Northeastern, saw multiple heroes emerge during this victory against Arkansas. On the mound sophomore Riane Ritter and redshirt junior Boede Rahe were both impressive out of the bullpen, after the Razorbacks started to put some pressure on sophomore Mason Cook. KU junior Tyson LeBlanc had three RBI, including a two-run home run, and junior Augusto Mungarrieta had a solo home run himself.

There’s a level of pressure that Kansas is facing, that it hasn’t yet during a rebuild in Lawrence that Fitzgerald started ahead of the 2023 season. After winning the Big 12 Conference regular season and tournament titles this year, the Jayhawks are continuing to raise the bar for what’s possible at KU. And so far, they haven’t fallen short of heightened expectations.

On Sunday, Kansas will have the chance to win a NCAA regional. Maybe the heroes this time will be junior Mathis Nayral and junior Brady Ballinger, or another member of a team that’s enjoyed the success it’s had this season because of its depth. Regardless, KU will step onto the field knowing it has a chance to make an already special season even that more extraordinary.

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He was the 2022 National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.