Gabriel Stigers

All they're worried about is the day and that game ahead of them.

So I'm sure it's in the back of someone's mind, but it's definitely not in the back of Dan Fitzgerald's mind.

He's just worried about today beating Northeastern and then going on to beat the winner of whoever, you know, the later game on Friday, 5 p.m.

So we're at noon.

against Northeastern and then Arkansas and Missouri State are going to do battle at 5 p.m.

a little after.

Hopefully there's some bad weather rolling in.

Hopefully that doesn't affect the play.

But the structure of it is essentially the two winners play each other and the two losers play each other on game two.

That double elimination, like you said, if you lose two games, you're done.

We heard today at the press conference this morning that he's progressing well, but nothing concrete there.

Missing the Big 12 tournament was, I think, more precautionary than anything, and you gave a guy like Xavion Flowers, like you said, a shot to do something.

He did some damage, more than a shot.

I mean, it was a walk-off home run against Baylor, and he continued to hit.

He knocked in a run in the semifinals.

Another guy to keep your eye on is Max Salise Jr., who actually got that start in left field against Baylor, who was later removed for Flowers.

That was just a matchup thing, though.

Salise is a two-year Jayhawk.

He's been in this situation before.

He could also factor in if Brady's not ready to go, but I would anticipate that Ballinger is at least in the lineup.