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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.
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 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
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.
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.
NOTEBOOK – 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)
