Jayhawks head coach Dan Fitzgerald’s desire for a Lawrence Super Regional meant pulling for the Oklahoma Sooners, but a resilient OU squad hitting its postseason stride presents a dangerous home-field trap.
Kansas baseball head coach Dan Fitzgerald basically admitted he was hoping Oklahoma would lose to Georgia Tech so his Jayhawks could host a Super Regional in Lawrence.
That’s bold.
Fitzgerald was being honest when talking about watching OU’s game against the Yellow Jackets.
"Honestly, watching it, I stayed pretty just baseball-minded of evaluating," Fitzgerald said.
"And then a little bit of fan in me came out when they tied it where I was like, 'Please walk them off so we can be at home.' So it was a fun day. But it was pretty much business trying to figure out how we were going to compete against both teams."
I get it on one level. Hosting a Super Regional is a big deal for any program, and Kansas obviously wanted the home-field advantage and the atmosphere that comes with it.
Georgia Tech was the No. 2 overall seed for a reason, they came into the tournament at 48-9, won the ACC title, and are a legitimate powerhouse.
Wanting to avoid a road trip to face them makes sense from a coaching standpoint.
Hey Danny, be careful what you wish for, buddy. Messing with the baseball gods like that tends to be a bad idea.
Oklahoma showed some serious fight in Atlanta.
The Sooners came all the way back from a 7-3 deficit in the seventh inning and forced extra innings against one of the best teams in the country.
That kind of comeback and resilience is exactly why you don’t want to play a hot Oklahoma team right now, no matter where the games are being played.
You could argue that the Sooners are getting hot at the right time.
This regional actually looked like OU’s first real sign of life in quite a while. The Sooners hadn’t won a three-game series since sweeping Missouri back on April 17-19. They also got bounced early in the SEC Tournament.
So seeing them battle back against Georgia Tech and then take care of business in the elimination game was encouraging. This team is finally starting to swing the bats and show some confidence at the right time.
If Oklahoma can go on the road and push around a top-2 national seed like Georgia Tech, they can absolutely go into Lawrence and give Kansas all they can handle.
Fitzgerald wanting that matchup might end up biting him.
A motivated, confident OU squad that’s starting to hit its stride is dangerous in the postseason.
You have to respect the honesty from Fitzgerald. It wasn't a diss on OU at all. In fact, one could argue it wasn't even about the Sooners, it was about getting to host in Lawrence.
With that said, Oklahoma heads to Lawrence with nothing to lose, and that's dangerous for any team at home playing with everything on the line when they are expected to win.
