ORU Golden Eagles 2026 Season Preview

The 2026 NCAA D1 season begins later this week and once again, the Sooner State will have some of the best teams in the country.

A team that often gets overlooked, the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles have become one of the best mid major programs in the country. ORU missed out on the NCAA Tournament for the first time in several years in 2025, but they are only 3 seasons removed from a trip to Omaha in the College World Series.

ORU super fan, Brandon Schultz, is here with his annual preview of the Golden Eagles.

Schultz is the cohost of The Oklahoma Baseball Experience podcast with Johnny Webb. You can hear the pod where you get your podcasts.

After a 2025 campaign that ended in heartbreaking fashion the Golden Eagles look at the 2026 season as a new start, but with a lot of familiar faces. Coach Folmar and staff were able to retain all of the talent from last year’s team even though there was much interest from other programs and they added some solid newcomers.

Looking at the Schedule

The 2026 season will again include quality competition from
familiar teams with games against Dallas Baptist, OU, OSU, and Arkansas. These power programs create some early season matchups and mid-season challenges that will provide a nice barometer for the potential of the team. The expectation to reach the top of the Summit League will begin with a home series in Tulsa, OK on February 13th.

Looking at the Infield

Looking at the position players first the 2026 ORU squad will be filled with many returning Juniors and Seniors. Having an older team continues to be valuable in the college baseball landscape and this team definitely provides experience.

This year’s position players are highlighted by D1 Baseball’s number 35 catcher in the country Wailele Kane-Yates. Yates is coming off a strong 2025 season where he hit 15 doubles and 12 home runs while racking up a .425 OBP. Having a guy like Kane-Yates as the backstop again this year will provide a major threat in the middle of the line up as well as stability to the pitching staff.

Matthew Mainord and Dawson Walls will fill in the back up catcher roles.

The infield will provide the most questions going into 2026. Martell Davis, Keaton Campbell, and Owen Coil all are all returners that made strong contributions in 2025. They will provide much needed experience from a season ago and will look to improve in 2026. Davis really took a step forward last season at the plate slugging 10 home runs and providing more consistent quality at bats

Also returning in 2026 is Cooper Kelly. Kelly was trending to be the starting shortstop last year before an injury took him out before the season.

Those 4 will likely make up most of the infield positions outside of 1B in 2026. Ethan Fender and Kole Dudding might breakthrough in 2026 as well.

At 1B there is not an obvious answer. Kane-Yates would be an option when he is not catching or DH.

I would also add in the only listed utility player on the roster Tanner McMurray to the infield group. Tanner is returning as a redshirt freshman and from what I saw had a great fall. What his role will be with a loaded infield remains to be seen, but I would expect some opportunities throughout the year.

Looking at the Outfield

A position group with a little more clarity is the outfield. ORU is returning all of its major contributors in the outfield from 2025, and I would expect the starters to remain the same.

Makani Tanaka will likely retain his role in CF. Tanaka has a solid year in 2025, but I think he has the most room to grown in 2026. He has great bat to ball skills and found a power stroke later in the year while playing quality defense in center.

Will Edmunson will also likely reprise his role in right field this year. Will was one of the most consistent hitters last season and provides real potential for a double-digit home run season.

In left field we will probably see a mix of Tyler Brodrick and Cooper Combs throughout the year as Combs fills the DH role when Kane-Yates is catching.

There are newcomers to the squad that I look forward to seeing get opportunities, but the outfield feels pretty set based off the performances from last year.

Looking at the Pitching Staff

The pitching staff repeats some of the same story as the position group. Though there were three notable losses in Dalton Patten, Jared Ure, and Conner Floyd, a majority of the contributors will be back. That being said losing Floyd and Patten at the end of games will be hard to absorb.

This is a team that I am really looking at starting pitching to provide depth in games and tamp down the opposing offense long enough to build a comfortable lead.

Easton Teel headlines the returners from 2025. The Sophomore returns from a season where he posted a 7-2 record and a 2.95 ERA while leading the team with 82.1 IP. Easton is a pitcher that simply pounds the zone only issuing 15 walks in the entire 2026 season.

Nathan Love will also likely reprise a weekend role as a Senior. Last year he held opponents to a .241 average and ended the season with a 4.01 ERA.

To find who will fill the last spot in the weekend rotation I would look at a few names: Weston Rouse, Brenden Asher, and Braydon Sanford.

If Rouse can take a step forward this year we ORU might have a special year. Weston transferred from OSU and has immense talent. Though it was a bit of a roller coaster last year the flashes of greatness were there and putting it all together solidifies an above average weekend rotation.

Asher and Sanford both put together really solid seasons last year. Asher is now a sophomore, and Sanford is a Junior. With that experience I expect them to be bigger impacts in 2026.

Take your pick of those 3 to fill the last weekend role or mid-week starter roles. There could, of course ,be others competing for roles which will something to keep an eye on throughout the season.

ORU’s bullpen is the place that I really have the least grasp on. In fact, all 3 players with more than one save last season have since graduated. Could Rouse or maybe Sanford fill that void?

There were younger pitchers last year that had some serious arm talent but needed to get more refined in the off season that could potentially step in.

That is about all of the insight I can provide on roles at this point. It will be the most intriguing group to watch this year and see who grabs the opportunity to get innings throughout the year.

Outlook for the Season

All in all I feel strongly that this squad will get back to a regional. It just feels like a classic old, experienced team that all made the choice to stay together at Oral Roberts this season.

I think they were all extremely disappointed with the way last year ended. (I certainly was.) I believe they had a chance to make some noise in a regional, but they just could not get anything big going to get through NDSU’s quality pitchers.

The two big question marks to me would be offensive consistency and back end of the bullpen. Will the offense be more consistent this season or will they go through hot and cold periods again?

Either way, any day at the ballpark is a good day at the ballpark and I hope to see more fans enjoying baseball in a continuously improved stadium.

#RollEags

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