NCAA Tournament bracket shrinks to KU + 15 other teams: ‘It’s a pretty cool thing’
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- Sixteen teams remain in the NCAA baseball tournament vying for eight CWS berths.
- Kansas will open the best-of-three Super Regional vs Oklahoma at 5 p.m. Saturday.
- Oklahoma beat Georgia Tech 8-7 in 10 innings on a Dayton Tockey walk-off homer.
Just 16 baseball teams in the original NCAA Tournament field of 64 remain in the running for eight available slots in the College World Series.
The CWS, the ultimate prize, is set for June 12-22 in Omaha, Nebraska.
“(This time of year) you just get inundated with the bracket. When you see it shrinking down, it’s a pretty cool thing,” fourth-year KU coach Dan Fitzgerald said Tuesday after learning his Jayhawks (45-16) would open the NCAA Super Regionals against Oklahoma (36-22) at 5 p.m. Saturday at Hoglund Ballpark on KU’s campus.
“We talk so much about the things we’re grateful for inside our program,” Fitzgerald continued. “I think this is just another opportunity to compete for another championship. I mean a conference regular-season title, a conference tournament championship, a regional championship, we’re going for another one against another awesome team.
“I think it’s just another great challenge. My experience has been whoever enjoys the postseason the most usually does the best.”
Kansas will also meet Oklahoma at 5 p.m. on Sunday in the second game of the best-of-three series — the winner heads to Omaha. A deciding game on Monday would be played if necessary.
The Jayhawks are ready to savor this week’s experience in much the same way they enjoyed last weekend. Playing before energetic, record home crowds, KU defeated Arkansas twice and Northeastern once Friday through Sunday to advance.
KU was guaranteed a hosting assignment for a second straight week when Oklahoma defeated No. 2 seed Georgia Tech on Sunday and Monday in Atlanta. Had Tech won its own regional, KU would be traveling to the Yellow Jackets’ stadium for the Super Regionals.
“Absolutely,” Fitzgerald said when asked if this week’s games could make for one of the greatest weekends in KU sports history. KU has been to the CWS just once, in 1993. That season’s Jayhawks went 0-2 at the event.
“Last weekend right after the game (Sunday’s 13-10 clinching victory over Arkansas) the thought was, ‘It doesn’t get any better than this,’” Fitzgerald said. “Then, to be able to host again against another awesome semi-regional team that you know will travel well ... it’s pretty cool to have someone that’s in our vicinity that’s going to travel — and yeah, it’s going to be awesome.”
Fitzgerald said he’s OK with opening the Super Regionals Saturday instead of Friday.
“At first I thought maybe we’ll get to play Friday. It’d be great to get back out there,” Fitzgerald said. “Then the thought was this time of year the more rest you can possibly get is probably best.
“The adrenaline and emotional piece of the win (Sunday), being down five, coming back, winning at home, we couldn’t hear each other. The crowd (over 4,000 both Saturday and Sunday) is so ridiculous. I was yelling at someone on our team at second base to not get picked off, and I’m like, ‘They can’t hear me. They don’t know I’m here.’ I couldn’t even get their attention, so I think emotionally it was so draining that I’m definitely glad we have some rest. But I was good with either Friday or Saturday (as assigned by NCAA).”
Oklahoma (36-22) tied for 11th in the SEC regular season and lost its only game in the SEC Tournament. OU was the home team despite playing in Georgia; the Sooners trailed overall No. 2 seed Georgia Tech 7-3 after six innings in Monday’s 8-7 win in 10 innings.
OU scored five unanswered runs. Dayton Tockey had the big hit, a walk-off home run in the 10th inning. This marks OU’s first trip to the Super Regionals since 2022.
“Really athletic, they can run, they’re great defensively, very solid lineup, they play really good baseball,” Fitzgerald said of the Sooners. “Great pitching staff. Their coaching staff has been there and done that. Yeah, they’re just good on both sides of the ball. It’ll be a great challenge.”
‘In all, there will be 16 teams playing at eight Super Regionals. Other best-of-three series: Cal Poly at West Virginia; Little Rock at Troy; USC at North Carolina; Ole Miss at Auburn; St. John’s at Alabama; Oregon at Texas; Mississippi State at Georgia.
