KU coach Dan Fitzgerald gets his wish: Jayhawks to play more home games in NCAAs
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Fitzgerald wanted KU to host Super Regional games at Hoglund for a second weekend.
- Oklahoma beat Georgia Tech 8-7 on Dayton Tockey's 10th-inning walkoff.
- KU and OU will play a best-of-three Super Regional at Hoglund starting Saturday at 5 p.m.
As he drove to his Kansas baseball head coach’s office Monday to monitor and scout a 2 p.m. NCAA Regional game between Georgia Tech and Oklahoma, Dan Fitzgerald passed by Hoglund Ballpark, site of three Jayhawks regional victories played before overflow crowds Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“Kind of in the back of my mind was, I drove in and thought, ‘I really don’t want to see all the things go away in ‘The Backyard,’” Fitzgerald, KU’s fourth-year baseball coach, said of a temporary seating/standing room-only area located behind a new chain-link fence in left field.
It was constructed recently because of demand for tickets this postseason.
“I came up Naismith Drive and I’m like, ‘I kind of like these banners and it’s kind of fun seeing all the porta-potties out there knowing that could be filled up again.’ But then I thought, ‘OK, got to get through the game,’’’ Fitzgerald added of the ESPN telecast of OU-Tech.
Fitzgerald was well aware of what needed to happen for his Jayhawks to again be awarded hosting duties for a second straight weekend — this time for Super Regional games.
A Georgia Tech (50-11) victory over OU (36-22) would send the Jayhawks (45-16) to Atlanta for Super Regional action against Tech. However, an OU win would bring the Sooners to Lawrence for a best-of-three against the Jayhawks, with the winner advancing to the eight-team College World Series.
Fitzgerald, 48, was starting to ponder upcoming travel arrangements to Georgia as the Yellow Jackets led the Sooners 7-3 in the sixth inning of the regional championship game.
“It was like, ‘OK, well, Atlanta’s a great place, I’ve spent half my life there recruiting, it feels like,’” said Fitzgerald, who prior to working at KU coached on staffs at LSU (2022) and Dallas Baptist (2013-21).
The Sooners rallied to tie the game in the ninth and won it on a walkoff homer by Dayton Tockey in the 10th. OU was the home team Monday despite playing on the Yellow Jackets’ field.
Thanks to Tockey, OU and KU now face a collision course in the first game of a best-of-three series at 5 p.m. Saturday at Hoglund, followed by a 5 p.m. game Sunday. If needed, there will be a Monday game at a yet-to-be-determined time, again in Lawrence.
“Honestly, watching it, I stayed pretty baseball-minded of evaluating,” the coach said. “And then a little bit of the fan in me came out when they (Sooners) tied it, where I was like, ‘Please walk them off so we can be at home.’
“It was a fun day, but it was pretty much business trying to figure out how we’re going to compete against both teams.”
Tockey’s home run assured OU its third elimination-game victory within 24 hours, two of them comeback wins. OU beat Citadel 15-5 Sunday morning, then rallied from a six-run deficit to beat Georgia Tech 15-8 Sunday night, leading to Monday’s come-from-behind win.
“We’ve been doubted all week, talking about how good these guys are,” OU’s Tockey said of the Yellow Jackets in a postgame interview with SEC Network. “I mean, yeah they’re a good team, but everybody underestimated the Sooners. We took a swing at the giant last night (Sunday) and they hit us back pretty hard today, but we just stayed through it with each other all game and we started believing in each other. I got the opportunity to do what I do.”
Tockey, a 6-foot-1 senior from Fort Worth, Texas, is hitting .247 with six homers and 18 RBIs. He batted in the No. 8 slot in the lineup Monday.
“Yesterday (Sunday) they got a big lead on us,” Tockey said. “We just keep fighting. We trust each other. We just believe in each other, love each other. We’re going to finish the game and play all 27 outs for each other.”
The Sooners, who lost seven of 10 entering the NCAAs, looked like a special team the first few weeks of the 2026 season. OU opened with 19 wins in 24 games and moved to No. 8 in the national rankings. However, the Sooners went 13-16 over the second half of the season and finished 11th in SEC play. OU lost to LSU in the first round of the SEC tournament.
OU coach Skip Johnson kept his team’s spirits up by reminding the Sooners players they play in the tough SEC, which sent 12 teams to the NCAA Tournament (25 in the past two seasons).
“It’s the best conference absolutely. I think it’ll prepare us for next step in the regional. I think our conference will prepare us for just about anything,” ninth-year OU coach Johnson, 59, told the Oklahoman ahead of the Atlanta regional.
“There’s not an atmosphere we haven’t played in. We played at LSU, played at Texas, played at Arkansas. There’s not going to be a bigger atmosphere than we played in. Those atmospheres are like playing in Omaha. It’s just a mini Omaha. It’s like a box of BBs. When you throw a box of BBs on the ground everybody’s running everywhere … when they are together everyone’s strong. We talk about being together in those moments.”
Fitzgerald, who is 1-4 all-time as KU’s coach vs. OU (Johnson is 14-4 vs. KU), respects the Sooners.
“They are really athletic, can run. They’re great defensively. It’s a very solid lineup. They play really good baseball,” said Fitzgerald.
“They have a great pitching staff ... Their coaching staff has been there and done that. Yeah, they’re just good on both sides of the ball, very similar to some of the teams we played in the Big 12, in terms of they run, but they also have power. But they’re they’re really good, and it’ll be a great challenge for us.”
