The Sooners reached another gear in the NCAA baseball tournament and went on a magical run


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For the first time since 1994, the Oklahoma Sooners are NCAA baseball national champions. Skip Johnson and his club defeated No. 5 North Carolina in a 13-2 rout on Monday in the winner-take-all Game 3 of the College World Series Finals to secure the third title in program history.

An unforeseen and thrilling postseason run made the Sooners the seventh consecutive SEC team to win the CWS. They are also the sixth different program from the sport's most dominant conference to achieve college baseball glory in that span.

Twice in the championship series, Oklahoma roughed up one of the nation's most talented pitching staffs. Monday's 13-run outburst, like seemingly every game that preceded it this postseason, was the product of a top-to-bottom showcase from a lineup that closed the campaign on a blazing streak. Seven of the Sooners' starters logged base hits, and it was particularly fitting that the best performance of the day came from the No. 9 hole. Kyle Branch, who had not posted a three-RBI day since the third game of the season, drove in six runs and clubbed just his fourth home run in a 3-for-4 effort.

The Sooners made all kinds of contact against each of the eight arms North Carolina used in its desperate effort. In addition to Branch's monster outing, Dayton Tockey also crushed his sixth home run of the tournament, and Jaxon Willits made a bit of history in a 3-for-4 performance. His fifth multi-hit game of the CWS was the second most in the Charles Schwab Field era, and his five trips on base Monday matched the most in a single championship game in the last 30 years.

The rise of an all-freshman starting rotation was just as critical to Oklahoma's late-season surge as the scalding-hot bats, yet it was one of the veterans who shone the brightest in the final game of the year. LJ Mercurius -- who spent most of the year as a starter before swapping places with his younger brother, Xander Mercurius, in the bullpen -- came on in relief of Nick Wesloski to fire 5.2 innings of one-run baseball to earn the win.

That is how a team that went sub-.500 in conference play and dropped each of its final four regular-season series completed an improbable run to stand atop the college baseball world.

For North Carolina, the championship series loss was almost entirely uncharacteristic. The Tar Heels had lost just one series all year heading into the three-game set, and they were 29-0 in games in which All-American reliever Caden Glauber appeared before falling in the decisive contest.

It is another excruciating defeat for a North Carolina program that is all too familiar with the agony of close calls. The Tar Heels, with 13, have the second-most CWS appearances of any program to have not won a national title. They are now 0-3 in the championship series after previously falling to Oregon State in 2006 and 2007.

2026 College World Series results
Friday, June 12
Game 1: No. 16 West Virginia 7, Troy 5
Game 2: No. 5 North Carolina 6, Ole Miss 2

Saturday, June 13
Game 3: Oklahoma 9, No. 7 Alabama 0
Game 4: No. 3 Georgia 7, No. 6 Texas 1

Sunday, June 14
Game 5: Troy 12, Ole Miss 8
Game 6: No. 5 North Carolina 5, No. 16 West Virginia 2

Monday, June 15
Game 7: No. 6 Texas 14, No. 7 Alabama 2
Game 8: Oklahoma 4, No. 3 Georgia 3

Tuesday, June 16
Game 9: No. 16 West Virginia 12, Troy 0
Game 10: No. 3 Georgia 2, No. 6 Texas 0

Wednesday, June 17
Game 11: No. 5 North Carolina 12, No. 16 West Virginia 7
Game 12: Oklahoma 11, No. 3 Georgia 4

Saturday, June 20
CWS Finals, Game 1: Oklahoma 9, No. 5 North Carolina 3

Sunday, June 21
CWS Finals, Game 2: No. 5 North Carolina 6, Oklahoma 2

Monday, June 22
CWS Finals, Game 3: Oklahoma 13, No. 5 North Carolina 2

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