How did OU baseball reach NCAA Super Regional vs Kansas? Five things to know about Sooners
NORMAN — The Oklahoma baseball team is headed to the NCAA Super Regional round for the first time since 2022, when the Sooners reached the College World Series finals.
Coach Skip Johnson and the Sooners upset No. 2 overall seed Georgia Tech twice in the Atlanta Regional to advance to the Lawrence Super Regional where they’ll face No. 15 overall seed Kansas. The Jayhawks won the Big 12 Baseball Tournament and have won six consecutive games.
It took some heroics for OU to get here for the second time in five years.
Due to a Friday night postponement, the Sooners were forced to play four games in less than 40 hours last Saturday and Sunday, winning two of them and forcing a win-or-go-home contest Monday with the Yellow Jackets. Johnson masterfully used his pitching and OU’s bats woke up, scoring 38 runs on 45 hits across the final three games.
The Sooners will need to carry their momentum over 300 miles north to Hoglund Stadium as they begin their best-of-three series with Kansas on Saturday.
If you’re just now tuning into OU baseball, here are five things to know about the club ahead of supers:
Dayton Tockey the hero
It was the 10th inning after the Sooners had rallied back from down four runs in the seventh to force a tie against Georgia Tech on Monday. With no outs and a full count, senior infielder Dayton Tockey saw a pitch he liked.
Crushed.
Tockey sent the delivery 454 feet over the batter’s eye in deep center field to walk off one of the best offenses in college baseball history and send OU to Lawrence. It was his third homer of the regional.
“When I hit, I stood there and watched it, I looked at the ball and their center fielder, I looked down at him and he wasn’t moving,” Tockey said on 1Oklahoma’s Double Take podcast. “And then I just forget everything, I just blacked out.”
It was an unlikely moment for Tockey, who was in and out of the lineup most of the season. He’s started just 26 of the Sooners’ 58 games.
“For Dayton to do that is incredible,” Johnson said following the game. “He had a really good season going last year, broke his ankle, was one of our best hitters and fought through it for a long time. Struggled this fall a little bit, was a good mentor to another freshman. We started playing him here lately and he’s got it going good.”
The moment that kept OU’s season alive is a reminder that it takes everyone to make a deep run.
Sooners loaded with young, high-upside pitching talent
Johnson — who is one of the brightest pitching minds in the sport mentoring the likes of future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw — started freshmen in the first three games of the regional.
Entering the tournament, most figured the Sooners’ one-two punch of Cam Johnson and LJ Mercurius would be the X-factors if OU stood a chance to advance. But Johnson had a plan.
First, lefty Cord Rager who had put together four consecutive rough outings, dazzled in the opener against The Citadel, tying his career high with eight strikeouts while allowing seven hits and three earned runs with no walks in a career-long six innings on only 82 pitches.
Then it was righty Xander Mercurius’ turn against the daunting Yellowjackets. The Sooners lost, but he flashed, allowing five earned runs and striking out eight in 5 ⅔ innings.
During Sunday’s rematch with the Bulldogs, right-hander Nick Wesloski allowed only three earned runs in seven innings.
If OU can continue to get that kind of consistency from its freshmen arms, watch out.
Deiten Lachance is on a heater
During the first three months of the season, Deiten Lachance hit four home runs.
Since May 1, he’s hit 10. The McLennan Community College transfer and Quebec native has crushed nine big flies in his last 14 games.
Lachance, who was named the Atlanta Regional’s Most Outstanding Player, is the Sooners’ most dangerous hitter with his team-leading 14 homers, 58 RBIs and 1.030 OPS.
Get to know the Mercurius bros
LJ and Xander Mercurius are two of OU’s most lethal pitchers.
Xander is only getting started as a freshman, but LJ has started 12 games and made five relief appearances. Most figured we’d see LJ start a game last weekend, but instead Johnson used the UNLV transfer in relief and he allowed zero runs across seven innings.
With the Sooners in for three games max this weekend, Johnson will likely rely heavily on the brothers against the Jayhawks.
Can OU’s offense stay hot?
One of the biggest questions entering the weekend is which Sooners offense will show up?
Mostly known for its chaotic style of play the last few years under associate head coach Reggie Willits, OU has relied more on power of late. The Sooners have also had stretches this season where their bats go cold.
OU’s lineup is full of capable hitters, including Lachance, Tockey, star shortstop Jaxon Willits, Camden Johnson and Kyle Branch (hitting .333 over his last 13 games). The speedy Dasan Harris has also heated up, scoring 27 runs in his last 15 games.
Will the Sooners that stole 117 bases during the regular season roll into Lawrence or the team that hit 11 home runs last weekend?
It might take both to beat Kansas.
Colton Sulley covers the Oklahoma Sooners for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Colton? He can be reached at csulley@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @colton_sulley. Support Colton’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing adigital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Can OU baseball’s offense stay hot in NCAA Super Regional vs Kansas?
