The Oklahoma Sooners are your 2026 Division-1 Baseball National Champions
We haven’t seen a postseason run in college baseball quite like what the Sooners did in the final month of the season, and they completed their legendary run on Monday night in the rubber match of the College World Series final against North Carolina, winning in a blowout by a score of 13-2. This is an Oklahoma team that got into the tournament as an at-large, lower level two seed, beat the ACC double champs (Georgia Tech) on the road in regionals, beat the Big 12 double champs (Kansas) on the road in super regionals, beat the SEC double champs (Georgia) in Omaha, and then capped it off by taking two of three in the final from North Carolina, a program that was a top five ranked team by the consensus from wire to wire this year. For now on when we refer to teams “getting hot at the right time,” we will always look back to this Oklahoma Sooners team.
After North Carolina swung the momentum back in their direction in game two facing elimination, it looked like this wouldn’t be as quite a walk in the park as the Sooners made it out to be. They jumped out to an early lead in this one, something they did in all three games of the series, and the Tar Heels never led at any point. In the top of the second off of North Carolina’s starting pitcher, freshman Jackson Rose, the Sooners strung three base hits together which scored a run, and then tacked on another on a wild pitch to jump out to a 2-0 lead. With two outs in the third inning following a Jaxon Willits double, Rose was removed for the sophomore right-hander Walker McDuffie. From there, a Brendan Brock single, his second hit of the game, scored the third run of the game for the Sooners.
The Tar Heels did battle back early. They had as good a shot as any to re-tie the game in the bottom of the second, but a base running blunder put an end to that threat. With two outs and runners on first and second, a Rom Kellis single to right field presumably scored Erik Paulsen who was coming around from second, but Carter French who was at first tried to advance all the way to third but was thrown out by the right-fielder, Dasan Harris. The tag was applied to French before Paulsen crossed the plate, so the run would not count. Had French been safe or stuck at second, the Tar Heels would have still been in business with the top of the order coming up. Although it was just the second inning, it felt like a pivotal part of the game that could come back to haunt the Tar Heels.
The did end up scoring the following inning on a Gavin Gallaher base hit, but didn’t score their second and final run until the seventh inning, to which the game was pretty much out of reach at that point. The big question for North Carolina in this game was in what capacity would we see Caden Glauber considering he threw 65 pitches a day prior. You just simply weren’t going to let your best reliever sit in the bullpen in a winner-take-all game, so even if he could come in for a high-leverage, one hitter, type of situation, you were going to do that. Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, they had to go to him much earlier than they would have anticipated, and he simply didn’t have his best stuff. Walker McDuffie walked three consecutive hitters with one out in the fourth inning, to which the Tar Heels turned to Glauber. The freshman immediately walked the next batter on four pitches as Oklahoma extended the lead to 4-1, and then three pitches later, Jaxon WIllits roped a two-run single through the right side as the Sooners began to break the game open. Those were the only two batters Glauber would face in the only game all season in which North Carolina lost a game Glauber appeared in.
Oklahoma scored in each of the next two innings, adding one on a Dayton Tockey solo home run to lead off the fifth, and then two more on a Kyle Branch single in the sixth. They would add on four more in the eighth for good measures, one coming on a Dasan Harris single, and the other three coming on a three run home run off the bat of Kyle Branch, his one and only home run of the entire NCAA tournament, and just his fourth on the entire season.
While it was all about the bats for Oklahoma in this one, the arms need some credit as well. Freshman right-hander Nick Wesloski got the start, just the third start of his college career, meaning Oklahoma completed their World Series run having started freshman in every game in Omaha. Wesloski’s outing didn’t go nearly as long as either of his first two, which was expected knowing every pitcher was going to have a short leash given the circumstances, but he did set the tone early, throwing a 1-2-3 first inning and a scoreless second inning aided by the base running mistake of North Carolina. He made it one out into the third inning, closing his line in the final at 2.1 innings with one earned run on five hits, one walk, and three strikeouts. Junior right-hander LJ Mercurius relieved Wesloski in the third, and excelled in his bulk relief role, which he did throughout the NCAA tournament. Mercurius turned in 5.2 innings while allowing just one earned run on four hits, no walks, and five strikeouts. He turned it over to the senior right-hander Jackson Cleveland who threw the final inning, allowing just one hit while striking out all three batters he retired.
It was the third national title in program history for the Sooners, and first since 1994. Unfortunately for North Carolina, they will have to wait another year for their elusive first championship.
