The calendar has turned to the a new year and that means the OSSAA high school baseball season will be here soon. Classes A1, A2, and B officially get started February 23 while the rest of the classes begin March 2.
Up until that the beginning of the season, SSBR will be providing previews of as many teams as we can. Recently, SSBR sent out questionnaires to the high school coaches across the state of Oklahoma asking for their top returning players, top newcomers, overall strengths/weaknesses, and their overall assessment where their respective programs are coming into the 2026 season.
What you have below are the responses to those questions in the words of the coaches themselves.
Today’s team: Jay Bulldogs
Classification: 4A
2025 Spring Results: 7-22
Head Coach: Dylan Thurber
Head coaching experience: 3 years (1st at Jay)
Top Returners
- Tyler Murray SR will be a infielder that will hit at the top of the lineup. He’s a strong kid that has some thump at the plate.
- Leland Johnson SR will play CF for us and will be a top of the lineup guy as well. He’s a great athlete that can track the ball really well out there.
- Kenan Garcia SR got injured this previous football season with an ACL tear. We are hoping he will be back in time for the season but it has yet to be determined to what capacity we will be able to utilize him. If he was healthy he would be our starting SS as well as 2 hole in the lineup.
- Baylor Lancaster SR had a ACL tear in the same game 2 plays after Kenan. Hoping that he can get cleared to play this season and play in some form or fashion. Healthy, he would be a middle of the lineup guy for us and play a corner infield position.
Top Newcomers
- Cruzer Gibe SO he is a hardworking kid that shows up everyday and is extremely coachable. We don’t know exactly where he fits into the lineup and on the field, but he is slated to get a lot of playing time this year because of his work ethic as well as his competitiveness on the mound.
Overall Team Strengths
The strengths of our team is that I believe we are going to be tough at the plate. We might not light things up, but we are going to be really tough to get out in the box. We are going to have to have a lot of utility type of players, but we are going to have guys that are disciplined and prepared on defense.
Overall Team Needs to Work On
We lost both of our top arms from last year due to transferring to different schools. We have a lot of question marks on the mound this year. We are going to have to really learn how to pitch, because we do not have any big arms that can run it up on guys. We are going to have to be able to throw three pitches for strikes and play solid defense to win ball games.
Outlook
I think we are going to be a .500 to sub .500 ball club. We have had some transfers and a lot of injuries that is causing a lot of young guys to be sprung into action. It is tough to tell being my first year at the school right now. I haven’t truly got to see some of my players compete in a game yet. Hopefully throughout the season we can continue to build the competitive culture that we want to have here at Jay. I really like the boys that we have so I’m looking forward to a fun season no matter what our record shows.
Schedule
 | Jay Bulldogs HS Baseball 2026 |  | ||
| 2/16 | Wyandotte | Away | 5:00 | Scrimmage |
| 2/19 | Tahlequah | Away | 5:00 | Scrimmage |
| 2/24 | Ketchum | Home | 5:00 | Scrimmage |
| 2/26 | Adair | Away | 4:30 | Scrimmage |
| 2/27 | Claremore Sequoyah | Away | 5:00 | Scrimmage |
| 3/3 | Colcord | Away | 4:30 | V |
| 3/6 | Westville | Home | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 3/9 | Oologah | Home | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 3/10 | Oologah | Away | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 3/12 | Claremore | Away | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 3/16 | Grove | Away | 1:00 | V/JV |
| 3/17 | Grove | Home | 1:00 | V/JV |
| 3/21 | Poteau | Home | 1:00 | V/JV |
| 3/23 | Wagoner | Home | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 3/24 | Wagoner | Away | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 3/26-27 | Adair Festival | Away | TBA | V |
| 3/30 | Verdigris | Away | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 3/31 | Verdigris | Home | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 4/2 | Salina | Home | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 4/3 | Kansas | Away | 11:00 | V/JV |
| 4/6 | Vinita | Away | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 4/7 | Vinita | Home | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 4/9-11 | Pryor Festival | Away | TBA | V |
| 4/13 | Stilwell | Away | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 4/14 | Stilwell | Home | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 4/16 | Salina | Away | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 4/17 | Pea Ridge | Home | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 4/20 | Locust Grove | Home | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 4/21 | Locust Grove | Away | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 4/23 | Fairland | Away | 4:30 | V/JV |
| 4/28 | Siloam Springs | Away | 5:00 | V/JV |
| 4/30-5/2 | OSSAA Regional Tournament | TBA | TBA | V |
| 5/7-9 | OSSAA Area Tournament | TBA | TBA | V |
| 5/14-16 | OSSAA State Tournament | TBA | TBA | V |
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