Kansas baseball coach could regret what he wished for when Oklahoma comes to town

Kansas baseball coach Dan Fitzgerald had his wish come true, but he might eventually lament what he hoped for.

Fitzgerald in a press conference ahead of the No. 15 national seed Jayhawks hosting the Oklahoma Sooners in a Super Regional admitted that as OU stormed back against Georgia Tech on Monday he caught himself actually rooting for the Sooners so his team could host them in Lawrence this weekend with a spot in the College World Series on the line.

"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."

Sooners are a dangerous team no one wants to face no matter where it's at

Fitzgerald witnessed Sooner Magic as both he and OU fans watching got exactly what they wanted. After mounting a comeback from a 7-3 deficit in the seventh inning, the Sooners sent the game to extras. Dayton Tockey then in the 10th inning hit a towering 454-foot home run to upset the No. 2 team in the country and send OU to the Lawrence Super Regional. Had Georgia Tech fended off the Sooners' upset bid, the Jayhawks would be headed to Atlanta this week as underdogs.

On paper, Oklahoma is the clear preference on choice of matchup if you're Fitzgerald. The Yellow Jackets rightfully earned the No. 2 seed after entering the NCAA Tournament at 48-9 with an ACC title. The Sooners, meanwhile, were 32-21 before NCAA Tournament play and had lost seven of their last 10 games. Playing a daunting SEC slate, OU hasn't won a three-game series since sweeping Missouri the weekend of April 17-19. The Sooners were also bounced in the first round of the SEC Tournament.

Read more: Oklahoma is clearly must-see TV with Super Regional times announced

The Sooners, though, morphed into the type of team others don't want to see in the postseason while they were in Atlanta. They have nothing to lose and have proven they clearly have no quit in them.

OU needed a minor comeback against The Citadel in its first game of the Atlanta Regional, then after losing to Georgia Tech 9-3 on Saturday, strung together massive comebacks in back-to-back days to take down the Yellow Jackets. Even before that walk-off upset on Monday, the Sooners stormed back from being down 8-2 in the fourth inning the day before.

Even though Fitzgerald logically wanted to be home against the lesser opponent and he got what he wanted, his Jayhawks could actually be part of what's become a dream run for the Sooners to Omaha.

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