Sooner State Baseball Report

NCAA Tournament: Atlanta Regional Team Capsules

The Atlanta Regional begins Friday

Sooner State Baseball Report
4–7 minutes
, , , ,

The regular season is done. The conference tournaments are done. That means it is time for the NCAA D1 Tournament to get started this weekend.

The field of 64 has been broken up into 16, 4 team Regionals that will be played starting Friday. The top 16 seeds will host the Regionals as they will all be a double elimination format.

For the Sooner State squads in the tournament: OU and OSU, they are both the 2 seed in their respective Regional and are on the road. OU is in the Atlanta Regional hosted by Georgia Tech who is the national 2 seed and OSU is in the Tuscaloosa Regional hosted by the University of Alabama who is the national 7 seed.

Let’s take a look at each team in the Atlanta Regional.

Teams

  1. Georgia Tech, 2. Oklahoma, 3. The Citadel, 4. University of Illinois-Chicago

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

  • Conference: Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)
  • Bid: Automatic (ACC Tournament Champs)
  • Overall Record: 48-9
  • Conference Record: 25-5
  • Regular Season Conference Finish: 1st
  • RPI: 2
  • SOS: 29
  • Number of NCAA Tournaments All Time: 33rd
  • Number of NCAA Regional Championships: 6
  • NCAA CWS Appearances: 3 (last 1994)
  • NCAA CWS Championships: 0 (runner up to OU in 1994)

2026 Team Stats

  • Team Batting AVG: 358
  • Team On Base Pct: .469
  • Team Slugging: .636
  • Team HR: 125
  • Team RBI: 565
  • Team runs/game: 10.8
  • Team ERA: 4.66
  • Team WHIP: 1.40
  • Team walks: 220
  • Team strikeouts: 372

Individual Leaders

  • Batting AVG: Jarren Advincula, 2B (.431)
  • OBP: Vahn Lackey, C (.527)
  • SLG: Vahn Lackey, C (.780)
  • HR: Ryan Zuckerman, 3B (23)
  • RBI: Ryan Zuckerman, 3B (76)
  • Runs: Vahn Lackey, C (80)
  • Stolen Bases: Jarren Advincula, 2B (16)
  • ERA: Jackson Blakely (2.79) – 61.1 IP
  • WHIP: Dimitri Angelakos (0.95) – 28.1 IP
  • Wins: Jackson Blakely, Tate McKee (8)
  • Strikeouts: Tate McGee (90) – 71 IP
  • Saves: Mason Patel (7)

Notes

  • Individual offensive leaders my be dominated by Advincula, Lackey, and Zuckerman, but the Yellow Jackets have 9 players who have played at least 44 games with an OPS of at least .968 or above. Six of those players have an OPS north of 1.000.
  • As evidenced by their over 10 runs/game, the Yellow Jackets have eight players with at least 44 RBI. Zuckerman leads with 76 RBI, but Lackey is only 1 behind at 75 and Advincula is 3rd with 63.
  • Lackey looks like their best offensive player. He’s listed as their catcher. He has an OPS of 1.307 with 18 HR and 75 RBI. He has swiped 14 bags while being caught only once. Most impressive? He has more walks (47) than strikeouts (35).
  • Blakely and McGee are the top 2 arms for GA Tech. McGee leads the team in innings pitched and strikeouts while Blakely leads the team in ERA.
  • Mason Patel is the closer for the Yellow Jackets with 7 saves. He does have 2 starts and 37 IP. His BAA is .272 though so he can give up some hits.

Oklahoma Sooners

  • Conference: Southeastern Conference (SEC)
  • Bid: At-large
  • Overall Record: 32-21
  • Conference Record: 14-17
  • Regular Season Conference Finish: 11th
  • RPI: 26
  • SOS: 7
  • Number of NCAA Tournaments All Time: 42nd
  • Number of NCAA Regional Championships: 10
  • NCAA CWS Appearances: 11 (last 2022)
  • NCAA CWS Championships: 2 (1951, 1994)

2026 Team Stats

  • Team Batting AVG: .280
  • Team On Base Pct: .384
  • Team Slugging: .467
  • Team HR: 65
  • Team RBI: 329
  • Team runs/game: 6.6
  • Team ERA: 5.33
  • Team WHIP: 1.41
  • Team walks: 235
  • Team strikeouts: 534

Individual Leaders

  • Batting AVG: Dasan Harris (.347)
  • OBP: Trey Gambill (.445)
  • SLG: Deiten Lachance (.612)
  • HR: Deiten Lachance (12)
  • RBI: Deiten Lachance (51)
  • Runs: Camden Johnson (47)
  • Stolen Bases: Camden Johnson (26)
  • ERA: Cameron Johnson (3.86) – 53.2 IP
  • WHIP: LJ Mercurius (1.35)
  • Wins: Cameron Johnson, LJ Mercurius (6)
  • Strikeouts: LJ Mercurius (82) – 60.2 IP
  • Saves: Jackson Cleveland (8)

Notes

  • Lachance leads the Sooners in the power categories offensively and most of that slug has been in the 2nd half of the season.
  • The biggest question is what the Sooners will get on the mound? Will it be the Cameron Johnson and LJ Mercurius pre SEC play or from SEC play? If it is pre SEC, the Sooners have a chance.

The Citadel Bulldogs

  • Conference: Southern Conference (SoCon)
  • Bid: Automatic (SoCon Tournament Champs)
  • Overall Record: 35-24
  • Conference Record: 11-10
  • Regular Season Conference Finish: 5th
  • RPI: 41
  • SOS: 51
  • Number of NCAA Tournaments All Time: 14th
  • Number of NCAA Regional Championships: 1 (1990)
  • NCAA CWS Appearances: 1 (1990)
  • NCAA CWS Championships: 0

2026 Team Stats

  • Team Batting AVG: .275
  • Team On Base Pct: .380
  • Team Slugging: .400
  • Team HR: 38
  • Team RBI: 341
  • Team runs/game: 6.5
  • Team ERA: 4.70
  • Team WHIP: 1.45
  • Team walks: 241
  • Team strikeouts: 460

Individual Leaders

  • Batting AVG: Michael Gibson (.394)
  • OBP: Michael Gibson (.469)
  • SLG: Michael Gibson (.599)
  • HR: Zach Hunt (10)
  • RBI: Zach Hunt (47)
  • Runs: Jayden Williams (57)
  • Stolen Bases: Jayden Williams (28)
  • ERA: Andrew Buffkin (2.62) – 68.2 IP
  • WHIP: Will Holmes (1.25) – 88.1 IP
  • Wins: Will Holmes (7)
  • Strikeouts: Will Holmes (112)
  • Saves: Michael Gibson (10)

Notes

  • The Bulldogs do not slug. They only have 38 home runs as a team on the season. What they do is manufacture runs. As a team, they have 139 stolen bases in 171 attempts. They also average over 4 walks per game and have a total of 26 sacrifices on the season. If they get on base, they put pressure on the opposing team’s defense (sound familiar?)
  • The Citadel does have some good numbers pitching wise, but half of their games came against a SoCon league that wasn’t very good.
  • The Citadel is fortunate they won the SoCon Tournament as they were the only team from their conference to get a bid. Mercer had an RPI of 28 (just 2 behind OU), but didn’t receive an at-large bid.

Illinois-Chicago Flames

  • Conference: Missouri Valley Conference (MVC)
  • Bid: Automatic (MVC Tournament Champs)
  • Overall Record: 27-27-1
  • Conference Record: 16-8
  • Regular Season Conference Finish: 1st
  • RPI: 228
  • SOS: 228
  • Number of NCAA Tournaments All Time: 7th
  • Number of NCAA Regional Championships: 0
  • NCAA CWS Appearances: 0
  • NCAA CWS Championships: 0

2026 Team Stats

  • Team Batting AVG: .274
  • Team On Base Pct: .382
  • Team Slugging: .446
  • Team HR: 67
  • Team RBI: 327
  • Team runs/game: 6.2
  • Team ERA: 5.84
  • Team WHIP: 1.51
  • Team walks: 189
  • Team strikeouts: 398

Individual Leaders

  • Batting AVG: Ashton Kampa (.367)
  • OBP: Ashton Kampa (.426)
  • SLG: Ashton Kampa (.734)
  • HR: Jake Busson (18)
  • RBI: Thomas Curry (53)
  • Runs: Thomas Curry (49)
  • Stolen Bases: Sean Cody (10)
  • ERA: Mason Lei (3.47) – 93.1 IP
  • WHIP: Mason Lei (1.22)
  • Wins: Mason Lei (8)
  • Strikeouts: Mason Lei (85)
  • Saves: Zack Millsap

Notes

  • Not much to say, but the Flames are the 2nd worst team in the field RPI wise (South Dakota State 239). They have a good conference record, but the MVC is not anything to write home about.
  • Their top pitcher, Mason Lei, may give them a chance vs Georgia Tech, but he’d have to pitch the game of his life.
  • Their lineup is top heavy with Kampa, Busson, and Curry, but they do not have a deep lineup.

Official Sooner State Baseball Report Merch

Like this content? Don’t miss any posts. Enter your email in the box below and have Sooner State Baseball Report content delivered right to your inbox.

Leave a comment

Trending