OMAHA, Neb. – When the Oklahoma Sooners won their first national championship in 1951, they got on a yellow school bus and went back to Norman, Oklahoma, almost immediately following the game.
Back then, the school had provided them a bus but no hotel rooms, according to a 2022 story by ESPN’s Ryan McGee, and staying an extra night in Nebraska wasn’t in the already-meager budget.
The Sooners will stay in Omaha for at least one more night after capturing the third national championship in program history and the first since 1994 on Monday night. Behind a 3-for-4 night and six RBIs from No. 9 hitter Kyle Branch and 5 1/3 innings from star reliever LJ Mercurius, they took the deciding Game 3 of the 2026 Men’s College World Series Finals and the national championship with a decisive 13-2 win over the North Carolina Tar Heels.
The win capped a season where, at times, the Sooners reaching Omaha seemed somewhere between a stretch and an impossible dream, considering the team finished the Southeastern Conference regular season tied for 11th place with a 14-16 record in conference play and was assigned to a regional hosted by No. 2 national seed Georgia Tech, where they trailed Georgia Tech in the first game of the Regional Final 7-2 before an eight-run inning kept their season alive.
“It was amazing how they came together and started caring a lot about each other. A lot of times we, as coaches, sit there and talk about, ‘Hey, you don’t know who is going to get the biggest hit, you don’t know who is going to make the biggest play or throw the last pitch of the game,’ or whatever. But it’s just about being selfless,” said Sooners head coach Skip Johnson, who’s club finished the season 43-23 and went through the NCAA Tournament with an 11-2 record.
North Carolina’s elite pitching struggled almost immediately, and the Sooners took advantage, putting runs on the board in every inning from the second to the sixth.
After getting two singles off North Carolina starter Jackson Rose with nothing to show for them on the scoreboard, the Sooners got a leadoff single from Brendan Brock in the top of the second. Dasan Harris hit into a fielder’s choice at third, then advanced two bases on a single by No. 8 hitter Dayton Tockey. Another single by Kyle Branch got Harris home and Tockey to third, and then a wild pitch to Jason Walk allowed Harris to score to give the Sooners a 2-0 lead.
Erik Paulsen singled to lead off the bottom of the second for the Tar Heels and took second when Carter French hit a two-out single. Another single by Rom Kellis V to shallow right field sent Paulsen chugging home from second, but Oklahoma right fielder Dasan Harris made a perfect throw over second baseman Kyle Branch to Camden Johnson at third, who tagged French for the third out of the innings a second before Paulsen scored, denying the Tar Heels the run. A challenge by North Carolina resulted in the call on the field being upheld.
“That throw from Dasan was really special because the moment that tag was made, I looked home and he was still — he hadn’t touched home yet. And I was just, like, man, that is above me,” Branch said. “I think the whole team the whole dugout was screaming ‘4!’, and Dasan had the wherewithal to go three and just put it on the money. That was one of the best throws I’ve ever seen.”
Having thrown 49 total pitches through the first two innings, Jackson Rose was already on a short leash by the time he fanned Oklahoma’s Trey Gambill for the second out in the third with his 70th and final pitch of the day, yielding to Walker McDuffie with Oklahoma’s Jaxon Willits on second after he hit a one-out double. The first batter he faced, Brendan Brock, singled up the middle to score Willits and make it 3-0 Oklahoma.
A one-out single by Jake Schaffner in the bottom of the third followed by a walk to Owen Hull gave the Tar Heels some life, and another single by Gavin Gallaher scored Schaffner, moved Hull to third, and chased Oklahoma starter Nick Wesloski from the game for standout reliever LJ Mercurius, who quelled the rally by striking out Erik Paulsen and inducing a foul pop-out to catcher Deiten LaChance.
And from there on, the Sooners rolled to victory behind Mercurius, who threw 5 2/3 innings in relief where he allowed one run on four hits, striking out five and walking none. The junior retired the first five batters he faced before allowing a single to Owen Hull in the fifth, and then retired the next six batters he faced. The last game of the season showed how he had taken to early-season move to the bullpen and made a big role for himself as a reliever.
“When we moved him to the bullpen, he kind of bought into that, you know. He kind of embraced that. And in the course of the last four weeks, it was really special to watch him go through his routines, getting there — him and [Jackson] Cleveland, Gavyn [Jones], all those guys that were out there did a great job of picking each other up because you never know when it happens. You throw bullpens and you do all those things, you just never know when your number’s called,” Johnson said.
Sitting on the press conference dais with a pair of ski goggles cocked to the side on his championship hat, Mercurius was quick to credit Johnson.
“I think the biggest thing coming out of that bullpen is Skip’s a genius. I listen to Skip and whatever Skip says, I’m going to do. Simple as that,” Mercurius said while Johnson, two seats away, cracked a slight grin while rolling his eyes a bit.
“Skip says, ‘Take a breath and throw one pitch,’ I’m going to take a breath and throw one pitch. … Earlier in the year or when I was struggling, I wasn’t finishing my breath. I wasn’t taking a breath. And that’s the biggest thing we preach.When I started to appreciate it and really settle into listening and taking that breath, my game changed, and it shows.”
With one out in the fourth, McDuffie began to struggle with command, walking Kyle Branch on four pitches and Jason Walk on six pitches, then threw two more balls to Camden Johnson, which drew head coach Scott Forbes from the dugout and Caden Glauber in from the bullpen.
For the second straight night, Glauber entered the game inheriting a 2-0 count. Glauber didn’t work quickly and was called for a pitch clock violation before throwing ball four to Johnson to load the bases. A walk to Deiten LaChance pushed Branch across, and then a single to right field by Jaxon Willits scored Walk and Johnson to make it 6-1 and sent Glauber to the dugout without having retired a batter.
Facing Matthew Mathijs, who replaced Caden Glauber an inning earlier, Dayton Tockey led off the top of the fifth with a solo homer into the right field bullpen.
A two-out single by Kyle Branch in the top of the sixth with the bases loaded scored Willits and Brock to give the Sooners an eight-run lead.
In the bottom of the seventh, a two-out infield single by Owen Hull scored Jaden Nunez to cut the lead to 9-2, the only run Mercurius allowed.
And then, in the eighth, the Sooners turned their lead up to 11, getting an RBI single from Harris and then a three-run homer from Branch, his third hit of the night that gave him six RBIs total in the game.
“It was a big moment for me, for our team, because we were up big, and I was just competing,” Branch said. “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.”
“He’s an unbelievable kid. He works extremely hard. And he scuffled a little bit this year. But guys with the right attitude come up in the best moments of the game. That’s what baseball does. If you keep persevering through it, you come up with the right attitude, and the game will pay you back,” Johnson said of Branch. “I don’t know what it is about the game. It’s the spirit of the game. It protects those guys who continue to work at it and attack it, and it exploits the guys that are afraid of it and they’re timid.”
All season long, the Sooners worked, attacked, they got hot at the right time, and tomorrow, they’ll go back to Norman, Oklahoma, the improbable Men’s College World Series champions who kept the faith.
NOTEBOOK – Oklahoma shortstop Jaxon Willits was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2026 Men’s College World Series, and Willits, along with Sooners catcher Deiten LaChance and outfielders Dasan Harris and Jason Walk were named to the All-Tournament Team. … Camden Johnson’s walk that loaded the bases in the fourth was credited to Walker McDuffie, who threw the first two balls of the at-bat before Caden Glauber entered the game. When a new pitcher enters a game in the middle of an at-bat, the walk is credited to the previous pitcher if he left the game while behind in the count. … Oklahoma’s Trey Gambill earned a golden sombrero, striking out four times in five at-bats in Game 3, look at strike three for three of his four K’s. … Game 3 of the Finals was the only game the Tar Heels lost in 2026 in which Caden Glauber pitched. …
Photo: Oklahoma’s Nick Wesloski, center, hugs closing pitcher Jackson Cleveland, center left, as they celebrate after defeating North Carolina in Game 3 of the NCAA College World Series baseball finals in Omaha, Neb., Monday, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
