SSBR High School Preview: Tushka Tigers

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: Tushka Tigers

Classification: 2A-2

2025 Spring Results: 29-6 (2A-2 State Champion)

2025 Fall Results: 23-9 (2A State Finalist)

Head Coach: Landon Carper

Head coaching experience: 7 years (2nd at Tushka)

Top Returners

(Sr.) Kason Hull returns from our state championship run last year in the spring. He plays the middle infield while hitting at the top of the lineup. He provides consistency to our line up as well as speed and leadership. He is one of our two seniors and both of them lead our program together. He holds our younger guys to a championship standard at practice, games, and everyday routines. He makes our team the best it can be every single day by leading by example and bringing other players along with him. He has not signed anywhere yet but we are hoping to change that very soon. Other stats from the spring of 2025 and fall of 2026:(S 2025) Avg. 361, OBP% .586, Runs 50, and SB 17.(F 2026) Avg. .418, OBP% .521, Hits 41, RBIs 31, and SB 30.
(Sr.) Jaxson Gregory is another returning starter. He plays the OF and will throw some inning for us. He struggled last spring to get into the lineup but when the state tournament came around his number was called upon and he delivered like a true Tushka kid. This past summer and fall he has worked extremely hard earning himself a spot in the top of our line up. He provides the definition of being a Tushka Tiger to our program such as work ethic, discipline, integrity, and the ability to adapt. Stats from this past year.(S 2025) Avg. 250 and OBP% .438(F 2026) Avg. 384, OBP% 545, Hits 28, & BB 27
(Jr.) DJ Alberda is our 3rd everyday returning starter from last spring. His role has changed dramatically for us. He had to go from being a role player and pitching in as much as he could as a young kid to being a key factor in our lineup producing runs. He provides some pop to the middle of our lineup while giving us the option to bunt. DJ will be expected to give us some innings this spring as well. He has shown up everyday this past summer, fall, and offseason with the purpose of getting better and helping us bring home another state championship. Stats from this past year: (S 2025) Avg. 338, OBP% .495, RBI 19, & 10 SB (F 2026) Avg. 329, OBP% .491, Hits 26, & 14 SB
(Soph.) Braylon Hastings is our last returning everyday starter from the spring state championship team. Braylon was a freshman last spring and chipped in anyway that he could. He will be expected to give us some versatility again in the line up and on defense. He will be expected to do all the baseball things we do such as hit and run, bunt for hits, move runners over, and give us key innings on the mound. The spring his versatility was great for our team allowing us to run different defenses when needed and allowing our offense to run more smoothly. This last fall he struggled more than we were expecting as a Sophmore in the box but he has been working hard and we are expecting to have a breakout spring. He threw some of the most important innings this past fall and we are expecting him to pick up where he left off this spring. Stats from this past year:(S 2025) Avg. 396, OBP% 486, 36 Hits, 26 RBIs, and 17 SB (F 2026) Avg. 247, OBP% 380, 18 RBIs (F 2026 Pitching) 6-0 with 28.1 IP, 25 Ks, ERA 1.48 his wins included beating top teams in the fall..
(Soph.) Hunter White is our freshman lefty the spring that is returning. He closed the state semis and finals for us. He threw the 5th, 6th and 7th innings in the state finals following Sr Shooter Boatright. Hunter is expected to be tough on the mound again. He throws multiple pitches all around the zone from the left side. We are expecting to continue to improve on the mound and help our team bring home another state championship. Stats from this last year: (S 2025) He went 2-0 with throwing in relieved most of the time. He threw 35.2 innings, striking out 27 with an ERA of 1.76 as a freshman. (F 2026) He had a slow start but got going at the end of the year. He went 2-3 with throwing 38.2 innings, striking out 66 with an ERA of 2.1. He gets brought into thought situations in reliefs and performs every time.

Top Newcomers

We have added several new juniors and sophomores into our every day line up. We hope to see more growth and improvement out of them.

(Jr.) Jake Langley moved into our program this past summer and has been a great asset. He struggled early with the change but by the end of the season he was throwing innings and adding depth to our lineup. We expect more out of him in the rotation as well as in the line up. Stats from the fall: Avg. 356, Hits 31, and RBIs 26 Pitching he threw 28 innings with 27 Ks.
(Jr.) Creek Alford is another one of those Tushka kids that has a work ethic that can’t be matched. He is expected to give us some quality ABs as well as some innings in the OF and speed to our lineup up. Fall stats: Avg. 349, OBP% .481, and 14 SB
(Jr.) Jace Hastings is expected to play an important role for us this spring by adding depth to our lineup. He will give us more pop in the middle of the line up as well crucial timely hitting. Spring stats: Avg. 350 and OBP% .490
(Soph.) Grady Howard is our anchor. He got the privilege of sitting his freshman year behind all state catcher Zach Brame. He is expected to guide our team from behind the plate. He adds intelligence and heads up baseball to our defense. The future for this young catcher is bright.
(Soph.) Kale Graham has had to adapt and change more than any young kid in our program. He is expected to give our line up depth and pop. He was asked to try and play 1B this past fall following Walt Kerr who’s shoes aren’t easy to fill and when given the opportunity he took advantage of it. He is expected to improve and help our team make another championship run.
(Soph.) Kason Duvall provided speed and athleticism to our lineup. This kid’s ceiling is untouchable for most. I look forward to seeing Kason grow and mature this coming year. He plays a vital role in us adding runs to the scoreboard. He had some arm trouble this fall but hopefully we got that fixed this winter and he can compete for spot on defense.
(Soph.) Kollin Coates adds depth to pitching staff. He is expected to come out this spring and be a starter once a week getting through 5 innings each day. He has turned himself into a more of an athlete by taking pride in our workouts. I look forward to watching him compete to be an everyday starter.
(Soph.) Waylon George had to replace our all state CF Tristan Gibson. Waylon is expected to guide our OF everyday. He is expected to get better in the box and be a productive AB every time. Waylon’s going to improve throughout the spring and should be able to turn our line up over more often.
We are also expecting important roles and battle for playing time from Eli Webb, Cleat Zike, Adrian Fiscal, Nolan Langley, and Kooper Hull.

Overall Team Strengths

Our program has established winning as an expectation over the past decade. A few of our strengths would be our work ethic, overall athleticism, team speed, team versatility, and the desire of each one of our kids to continue to get better for the growth of our program as well as the expectation of bringing another championship to Tushka.

Overall Team Needs to Work On

Our team must be more consistent early in the year with the situational baseball, develop a mental toughness for the end of the year, and the ability to score runs at an easier pace. We have way more we could work on but we will start with those.

Outlook

I expect us to have another championship contending year. I think we need to grow and mature into everyday competitors. We need to make the little competitions within the game important and try to win those everyday.

Schedule

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