KU's Cook goes toe-to-toe with likely future 1st-round pick in 5-3 victory

It gets lost a little when you look at the final and see that there were eight runs scored. 

But for nearly 6 innings of Saturday night’s 5-3 regional win by top-seeded Kansas over No. 2 seed Arkansas at Hoglund Ballpark, the game was undeniably a pitcher’s duel. 

And KU starter Mason Cook was more than up for it. 

Cook, a sophomore from Keller, Texas, suspected all week that he would be opposing Arkansas ace Hunter Dietz, a likely first-round draft pick and dominant lefty, who hits 97+ with his fastball and then throws his cutter at 86 mph, keeping hitters off balance all night. 

And while Cook didn’t reach back and try to hit 98 on the gun or overpower hitters with his stuff, he did admit after KU’s victory that facing a guy like that had an impact on his night. 

“It was awesome,” said Cook, who pitched 4.2 innings and gave up 3 runs, 2 earned, while striking out one and walking two more. “It was just unreal, knowing that challenge. It makes you want it more. I mean, you just want to beat that guy. He pitched great. He did awesome today.” 

So, too, did Cook. And he thinks that part of the reason might have been the reality of the moment. 

“It just boosts your want-to-win whenever someone's better out there,” he calmly acknowledged. “I mean, I think he's better than me. He definitely is. But, I mean, you want to win when he’s out there.” 

For his part, Dietz struck out 14 Jayhawks — marking a career high — and looked unhittable at times. But Tyson LeBlanc’s 2-run home run, off of what Dietz called the only bad cutter he threw all night, tied the game at 3 and allowed the Jayhawks to chase the Arkansas ace from the game. 

“I think you just, you just try to go punch for punch and hope that you throw more,” KU coach Dan Fitzgerald said. “We needed to get him out of the game. I was hoping we did it long before that.” 

As it turned out, they did it just in time. Dietz left with the game tied and runners on base. And one of those runners came in to give KU a 4-3 loss and put Dietz on the hook for the loss. 

Cook, whom Fitzgerald called “as authentic as it gets,” did not get the win, but, for the 5 innings he was out there, he did his part to help make sure Kansas got it. 

“I don't know that you go toe to toe with Dietz,” Fitzgerald said. “I mean, that's as electric as I've seen in my years of doing this, which has been a couple. He was phenomenal. But Cookie did an unbelievable job of just keeping us in the game. So, when he came out, that's what I told him. I said, ‘Man, that's exactly what we needed to stay in the game.’” 

KU closer Boede Rahe, who pitched the 8th and 9th to close out the win, said he marveled at looking at the stats through 4 innings, when Cook had thrown just 42 pitches and seemed to be cruising. 

“It's just crazy how effective he was,” Rahe said. “And he was efficient. He was really efficient, and that's what we asked for.” 

As he has done for much of the season, Cook got ground-ball out after ground-ball out for 4 innings before things unraveled a bit in the 5th. He was one strike away from getting out of the inning but walked the batter and then gave up a 2-run home run that temporarily gave the Razorbacks the lead. 

While that spelled the end of his day and kept him from getting his sixth win of the season, Cook and his coaches and teammates viewed the outing as a job well done. 

“The moment’s never too big, he wants the ball and he's competitive,” Fitzgerald said of Cook. “He's very intelligent, great worker, great teammate, and you know he's just trying to do his job out there. … “Two great pitchers, I mean, what an environment, what a college baseball game, with two guys that are going to play baseball for a long time.” 

Dietz may have the bigger draft projection and be the better-known prospect as of today. But, when it comes to competing in a college baseball game, the Jayhawks like their guy just as much. 

“That guy was great on the other side,” LeBlanc said after Saturday’s win. “But any day of the week, I'm riding with our guys, and our guys did their job today. Hats off to them, they threw amazing. To give up three hits to that caliber of an offense, that's very impressive. It makes our job easy as an offense.” 

And it makes Kansas now just one win away from adding a regional title to its list of memorable achievements this season. 

KU (44-16) will play the winner of Sunday’s elimination game between Arkansas and Northeastern at 5 p.m. Sunday, with a chance to clinch the regional. 

Mathis Nayral is expected to start on the mound for Kansas.

— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com