Backroads and Ballfields: Oklahoma Lands Aquinas Shortstop Carter Hadnot
By Daniel Wilson ·
Carter Hadnot spent most of 2026 as one of the best high school players in the country without a college commitment. That ended on Oct. 20, when the Aquinas High School shortstop committed to Oklahoma, the reigning national champion.
Hadnot is a switch-hitter who throws right-handed. He lives in Rialto, Calif., and plays at Aquinas in nearby San Bernardino. He's one of the top shortstops in the 2027 class on our board, and the Sooners won out over a group of serious suitors. In an August story for Perfect Game, Jim Salisbury wrote that Hadnot named Oregon, LSU, Tennessee and Oklahoma among the schools recruiting him, with others in the mix too.
This is his second commitment. He first pledged to Miami in January 2023 and later backed out of that commitment. He stayed on the open market through his junior spring and the summer circuit.
The Family Side
Salisbury's story spent most of its time on Hadnot's family. His mother, Catherine, and grandmother, Marie, went with him to the All-American Classic in Philadelphia in August. His father, Bennard, stayed home with Carter's 8-year-old brother, Chase, who was diagnosed with autism at 2.
Hadnot talked about Chase at length. "He drives me to be better every day," he said. "I want to be a good example for him. He's my biggest fan. When I'm hitting, I can hear him say, 'Let's go, Carter!', and it makes me happy. I always have him with me. He's my guy. He's my best friend."
Perfect Game also named him its LGND Defensive Player of the Year at its awards banquet the night before the Classic.
The Numbers on Record
Prep Baseball's TrackMan data from its All-American Game on Sept. 18 shows a max exit velocity of 95.3 mph and a max batted-ball distance of 353 feet. At a June 2025 event, he ran a 6.46 60-yard dash and threw 89 mph across the infield, the max on his profile. Five Tool's Area Code Games highlights from Aug. 9 include a two-strike single to left that left the bat at 97 mph.
Campus or Draft
Hadnot plays a premium position and hits from both sides of the plate, and players like that tend to come off the board early in the draft. So Oklahoma's commitment comes with a real chance he signs out of high school instead. He told Salisbury the draft has been his goal for a long time. "That's always been my dream," he said. "I just like to play and have fun. Just play my game, have fun and see where it takes me. Hopefully it takes me to great places."
Aquinas has been through this before. Eric Bitonti, an Oregon commit, went to the Milwaukee Brewers in the third round of the 2023 draft out of Aquinas, 87th overall.
What Oklahoma Is Building
Skip Johnson is the head coach at Oklahoma, and Reggie Willits is his associate head coach. In June, the Sooners beat North Carolina 13-2 in Game 3 of the College World Series finals for the program's third national title and first since 1994. They got there after losing their last four series of the regular season.
Oklahoma's 2027 class now has 15 commitments. It already included Calum Andersen, a 6-foot-5 right-hander from Vauxhall Academy in Alberta who is also on our board.
Hadnot still has a senior season at Aquinas ahead of him. Whether he goes to Norman or straight to pro ball, Oklahoma got the commitment it was after.