Dietz Strikes Out Career-High 14 Batters in Razorbacks’ Loss to Jayhawks

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Hunter Dietz struck out a career-high 14 batters, but No. 14 Arkansas (40-21) was handed a 5-3 loss against No. 13 Kansas (44-16) Saturday at Hoglund Ballpark to fall into the NCAA Lawrence Regional’s losers bracket.

With the loss, the Razorbacks must now play an elimination game against Northeastern (39-21) at noon Sunday, May 31, on the ESPN family of networks with Victor Rojas (play-by-play) and Connor Wanhanen (analyst) on the call in hopes of advancing to the regional championship for a rematch against the No. 15 national seed Jayhawks. The Huskies defeated Missouri State 5-1 in an elimination game Saturday afternoon to keep their season alive for at least one more day.

Dietz was dominant on the mound for the Hogs with a career-best 14 strikeouts over a career-most 116 pitches in his 6.1 innings of four-run ball. The All-SEC left-hander, whose 14 strikeouts are good for the second most by a Razorback pitcher in an NCAA Tournament game in the Dave Van Horn era (2003-pres.), raised his season strikeout total to 131 in 85.2 innings of work to move into a tie with Kevin Kopps for fourth in program history in single-season strikeouts (131).

Despite Dietz’ career night, Arkansas’ offense mustered just three hits against the Kansas pitching staff. The Razorbacks took a 3-1 lead in the fifth inning on Reese Robinett’s go-ahead two-run home run, but the Jayhawks answered with a two-run blast of their own in the bottom half of the frame and tacked on two more runs later in the game to go up 5-3.

Camden Kozeal had two of the Hogs’ three hits, finishing 2-for-4 with a double to raise his team-leading slash line to .321/.410/.667 in 60 games this season. Robinett’s home run, meanwhile, was just his second of the 2026 campaign.

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