Dayton Tockey’s meteoric postseason rise with OU baseball rooted in competitive childhood upbringing
· Yahoo Sports
OMAHA, Neb. — Throughout Dayton Tockey’s life, he’s always wanted to win.
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It didn’t matter what he competed in or who he competed against.
Whether it was the top team in 6A Texas baseball or ping pong in the basement against his sister, he wanted to emerge victorious.
That competitive background, along with advice from his biggest fan, guided Tockey through the worst slump of his baseball career, leading to Tockey’s emergence as an Oklahoma baseball offensive leader and a trip to Omaha.
Tockey, an Oklahoma baseball first baseman, broke out of a cold streak at the right time shortly before OU’s regional appearance in Atlanta and has since had one of the hottest bats in the country.
The Sooners will play in the Men’s College World Series this week, with their first game Saturday against No. 7 Alabama at 2 p.m. inside Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska, with Tockey at first.
Tockey began the season as the starting first baseman, but quickly split time and eventually was removed from the everyday lineup by the conference season due to a .222 batting average with 14 strikeouts.
He continued to start a handful of games, but also found little to no success at the plate. From the end of February to the start of the NCAA Tournament, Tockey had just five hits.
“There for about three weeks, it was tough to show up,” Tockey said. “I wasn’t happy at all. I wasn’t having fun… It was hard. Obviously I wasn’t performing for the team like I was supposed to and like I knew I could have.”
Despite going through those struggles, Tockey continued to stick through it with the Sooners.
When Tockey was out of the lineup, the Sooners would either go with freshman Connor Larkin or move catcher Deitan Lachance to first and put right fielder Brendan Brock behind the plate. The Sooners had options and deployed those throughout the conference season.
That absence from the lineup didn’t shake Tockey as a teammate though. He continued to be a leader for the Sooners, especially to Larkin and the others replacing him at first base.
“He was a great leader even though he wasn’t in the lineup those days,” said OU shortstop Jaxon Willits. “He was over there helping those guys, learning stuff about how to play first base at a high level. I feel he was really selfless in the way that even though he wasn’t playing, he was helping guys that were at his position.
“He was helping them get better for the team.”
As the final game of the regular season approached, Tockey found himself inserted into the starting lineup for Senior Day against Tennessee — that’s when the cold streak snapped.
Tockey went 1-2 at the plate with a home run and four walks against the Volunteers.
Since that start May 16, Tockey’s been on fire, starting every game of the postseason going 11-27 with six home runs and 11 RBIs in nine games.
His recent performance is no coincidence though, he had a talk with himself and his mom Kristi Gilpin. Those chats put baseball in a different perspective, making him remember why he’s playing it.
“I just thought about how I’m playing a kid’s game,” Tockey said. “I got to get back to having fun and act like a little kid on the diamond again, just like I did when I was 9-15 years old.”
Those conversations were tough on Tockey, but he knew he needed to find a different mindset during a bad stretch of baseball.
However, that change in mindset went back to a past one instead of a completely new thinking, he just needed his mom’s advice.
“I’ve always told him to stay true to yourself. Stay true to your game. ‘Dayton Ball’ is what I like to call it,” Gilpin said. “Keep the faith, everything is going to happen the way it should and the way God wants it to happen… Then it all started clicking, everything was firing off in Atlanta and here we are today.
“It’s actually been really special. Not just for Dayton, but for the whole team, too.”
The peak of Tockey’s resurgence came at the end of the Atlanta Regional, when he etched his name into Oklahoma athletics lore.
The Sooners were down 7-3 in the seventh in the winner-takes-all game at No. 2 Georgia Tech. They found a way to battle back and send the game into extra innings.
That allowed Tockey to walk up to the plate as the leadoff batter in the bottom of the 10th inning and blast an offspeed pitch over the center field wall — walking off the Yellowjackets for an unbelievable win.
Tockey would continue his tear into the super regional against No. 15 Kansas, earning Lawrence Super Regional MVP.
Tockey’s breakout postseason is out-of-nowhere after the start to the season he had. His perseverance, though, is rooted in his childhood.
He’s always been competitive. Weatherford (TX) High School baseball coach Jason Lee, who coached Tockey, believes he’s had that trait for a long while.
In high school, Tockey always pulled through in the biggest of moments — like his walk-off home run — and that was the norm from his performance.
It was almost expected for Tockey to show up when the lights were the brightest, which is what he’s displayed the past few weeks on his way to Omaha.
“I still say to this day that he’s probably one of the best competitors I’ve ever coached,” Lee said. “When it was a big stage, he wanted the baseball, whether that be on the mound or he wanted to be the one at the plate.
“In those moments, it didn’t bother him. He just seemed to be able to stay in the moment and slow everything down. Dayton would come through in those situations.”
Gilpin’s been making decisions since Tockey’s T-ball days that have shaped the way he attacks competition.
Tockey grew up in Weatherford, Texas, but Gilpin decided to always get him on a team in Fort Worth.
She knew those decisions would change Tockey’s traits, which is why he’s breaking out like he is this postseason.
“I didn’t want him to be the best on the team,” Gilpin said. “You don’t grow from that. So I’ve always played him and taught him that he needs to fight for what he wants. Again, you’re not going to be the best on the field all of the time, but that’s OK. I feel like it’s made him who he is today.
“I just feel all of his baseball years he’s been put in great situations to do great things.”
Tockey’s been through plenty of battles and not just pertaining to this season. Tockey broke his ankle during the 2025 season and lost all momentum he built.
With that, his slump this season and the tough path to make it to Oklahoma via junior college, the struggles are paying off and it’s making his biggest fan elated.
“To see him break out is special,” Gilpin said. “It’s crazy. This is Dayton. This is how Dayton plays baseball and I hate that people didn’t get to see it a lot this year… So to see him finally get back to himself and having a good time and doing what Dayton does, I could not be more proud of him as a mom and as his biggest fan.”