OMAHA, Neb. – The Sooners are the Champs.
Nine-hole hitter Kyle Branch homered and knocked in a career-best six as Oklahoma downed No. 5 North Carolina 13-2 in front of 23,248 fans on Monday evening at Charles Schwab Field to claim its third national championship.
The Sooners (43-23) also won titles in 1951 and 1994. The Tar Heels (54-14-1) fell in the CWS Championship Series for the third time, still seeking their first national crown.
“We took the momentum over early,” said OU head coach Skip Johnson. “And we made some great plays defensively and got some big hits. These guys were separating balls from strikes, staying in their routines, the thing we talk about, pitch to pitch, and getting some big hits.”
OU scored in six of their first seven at-bats to take control. The Sooners started the scoring in the top of the second. Brendan Brock had a leadoff single and was erased at second on a fielder’s choice by Dasan Harris. Dayton Tockey had a base hit to move Harris to second and a single to right by Branch plated Harris with the game’s first run. Tockey touched home on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.
UNC threatened in the bottom of the second. Erik Paulsen had a leadoff single and went to second on a two-out base hit by Carter French. Rom Kellis V singled to right and the throw by Harris nailed French at third before Paulsen touched home, so no run as Sooners maintained their 2-0 edge.
“That throw from Dasan was really special,” Branch said, “because the moment that tag was made, I looked home and he hadn’t touched home yet. I think the whole team, the whole dugout was screaming 4, and Dasan had the wherewithal to go 3 and just put it on the money. That was one of the best throws I’ve ever seen.”
The Sooners added to their lead in the third. Jaxon Willits had a one-out double down the left field line. With two away, Walker McDuffie was summoned from the bullpen to take over for Jackson Rose. Brock greeted McDuffie with a single to center that brought in Willits, giving OU a 3-0 lead.
The Tar Heels got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third. Jake Schaffner had a one-out single, went to second on a walk to Owen Hull and scored on a base hit by Gavin Gallaher to make it 3-1. Nick Wesloski departed and LJ Mercurius entered to pitch for OU.
Mercurius struck out Paulsen and got Cooper Nicholson on a foul pop to catcher LaChance to keep it a 3-1 contest.
“When I was coming into the game,” Mercurius said, “the mindset was always the same. Take my deep breath, finish my breath and just execute a pitch. And I knew if I did that, we’ll be able to get out of the inning.”
With one away in the top of the fourth, McDuffie walked two straight and fell behind 2-0 to Johnson. UNC elected to bring Caden Glauber and he walked Johnson, with the walk being charged to McDuffie. Glauber walked LaChance to force in a run and make it 4-1. Willits delivered a two-run single to put the Sooners up 6-1, ending the night for Glauber. Matthew Matthijs entered and fanned two to keep it at 6-1.
Tockey lined a homer to right to lead off the top of the fifth, extending the OU lead to 7-1. Branch added a two-run single in the sixth as the Sooners went up 9-1.
Hull had an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh for UNC to make it 9-2.
Branch provided the exclamation point with a three-run homer to cap a four-run eighth as the OU lead grew to 13-2.
“It was a big moment for me, for our team,” Branch said, “because we were up big, and I was just competing. It was a two-strike approach. Skip’s been telling me to hit and run the past couple days. And that’s really all I was thinking about. But got a pitch up and then just continued to play hard and play pitch to pitch.”
Branch finished with three hits and six RBI. Willits was 3 for 4 with a double, two walks, two runs and two RBI for the Sooners.
“I think we knew that the talent was always in the room,” Willits said. “And that’s something that Skip and all the coaches preached to us from day one in the fall, is that this group of guys is special. Whether we were playing well or not, we believed that we had the talent in the room to go out and win a national championship. And I feel like we were able to just take it one pitch at a time. And when things weren’t going our way, we took it one pitch at a time. And when things were going our way, we took it one pitch at a time. And at the end of the day we had success with it. And we kind of got hot at the right time, and now we’re national champions.”
Mercurius (7-7) was dominant, pitching 5.2 innings with four hits, one run, no walks and five strikeouts to record the win.
Schaffner, Hull and French each had two hits for the Tar Heels, who stranded eight.
“Obviously, that’s a tough loss,” UNC head coach Scott Forbes said, “but I want to congratulate Oklahoma. Heck of a ball team. They deserved it. They played well tonight. They earned it.”
Notes
CWS All-Tournament Team: C Deiten LaChance, Oklahoma; 1B Erik Paulsen, North Carolina; 2B Gavin Gallaher, North Carolina; SS Jaxon Willits, Oklahoma; 3B Tyrus Hall, West Virginia; OF Dasan Harris, Oklahoma; OF Owen Hull, North Carolina; OF Jason Walk, Oklahoma; DH Adrian Rodriguez, Texas; P Joey Volchko, Georgia; P Caden Glauber, North Carolina.
CWS Most Outstanding Player: Jaxon Willits, Oklahoma
- OU is the 10th program to win the College World Series three or more times.
- The Sooners are the first team to record nine wins over national seeds since seeding began in 1999.
- OU had 47 home runs in its final 19 games since May 1 after just 48 homers in their first 47 games.
- The Sooners have won the national championship each of the past two times that the United States hosted the Men’s World Cup (1994, 2026).
- Jason Walk extended his hit streak to 15 games and on-base streak to 23 games.
- The SEC has won the past seven championships by six different teams: Oklahoma 2026, LSU 2025 & 2023, Tennessee 2024, Ole Miss 2022, Mississippi State 2021, Vanderbilt 2019.
- UNC fell in the CWS Championship Series for the third time. The Tar Heels lost two of three to Oregon State in 2006 and dropped two games to the Beavers in 2007.
- The Tar Heels used eight pitchers, tying a CWS record and setting a championship game record.
- UNC was 29-1 when Caden Glauber pitched this season.
- Gavin Gallaher extended his hit streak to 16 games and on-base streak to 28 games.
- Owen Hull extended his hit streak to 15 games and on-base streak to 22 games.