OMAHA, Neb. – Sometimes, a lineup’s power in a crucial game comes from unlikely sources.
For the Oklahoma Sooners on Thursday night, the unlikely sources were Dasan Harris and Jason Walk, who had each hit just four homers all season. Behind a pair of two-run homers by Harris, a pair of solo homers from Walk, and a five RBI night from Trey Gambill, the Oklahoma Sooners advanced to the championship series at the Men’s College World Series with a 11-4 win over Georgia.
The multi-homer games by Harris, who finished 2-for-5 with five RBIs, and Walk, who went 2-for-5 and drove in a pair, were the first multi-homer games by Sooners players at the College World Series in the program’s 12th appearance in Omaha.
The Sooners, who are seeking their first national championship since 1994, will return to the championship series, which will begin Saturday night at 8 p.m. EDT, for the first time since 2022 when they lost to Ole Miss in two games.
With one out in the top of the third, Jason Walk homered to right center field to give the Sooners a 1-0 lead.
“Walk got us going. He kind of opened the floodgate and hitting them all over the 400 wall was really huge,” said Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson. “And Dasan, right here, really proud of what Dasan has done. He came into our program, just with an opportunity. It’s kind of crazy, but he never wavered, never complained. He just kept at it and kept at it, kept listening to the coaches and got better and better as he went through it.”
An inning later, Trey Gambill took a fastball up in the zone over the right field wall and into his own team’s bullpen to make it 2-0. Brendan Brock followed with a single and then advanced to second when Georgia pitcher Paul Farley made a deceptive pickoff move to first that was ruled a balk by first base umpire Rick Allen. Despite the vehement objection of Georgia head coach Wes Johnson, the call stood. A balk call isn’t reviewable, and it quickly became a moot point when Dasan Harris sent Farley’s 2-0 cutter 420 feet over the wall in right center for a two-run homer and a 4-0 Sooners lead.
The homer ended the night for Farley, who was replaced by Matt Scott after 3 1/3 innings, having struck out six and allowed four runs on six hits.
Harris, a walk-on who battled his way into the starting lineup, said this game, the best of his career, “Means everything. I mean, I thank my coaches and my teammates for always believing in me. I mean, I’ve dreamed of this moment since I was a little kid, and coming here was part of that and being able to be put in those spots.With Brock getting on base and then allowing me to get two runs with an RBI is something special.”
In the bottom of the fifth, Georgia got a one-out double from Kolby Branch, and Ryan Black drove Branch in with a single to cut the Oklahoma lead to 4-1.
Trey Gambill singled to lead off the top of the sixth for Oklahoma, stole second, and then scored on Dasan Harris’s ground out to second to make it 5-1.
Georgia loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth when Ryan Wynn drew a two-out walk that ended the night for Oklahoma starter Nick Wesloski, who threw 5 2/3 innings, allowing three runs, one of them earned, on four hits..
In came LJ Mercurius to face Jack Arcamone, who bunted and reached on an error when Oklahoma’s Dayton Tockey bobbled the ball and couldn’t make a play, with Brennan Hudson, who hit a one-out single, going to third and Wynn reaching second. Consecutive bases loaded walks to the No. 8 and 9 hitters, Kolby Branch and Ryan Black, shaved two runs off the lead before Tre Phelps hit into a fielder’s choice at third to end the inning.
But the Sooners bats were relentless, and in the seventh, Kyle Branch led off with a walk and advanced to third on a two-out single up the middle by Deiten LaChance. A double into the right field corner by Gambill got Branch home to make it 6-3.
Brendan Brock led off the eighth with a single, and then Harris sent a hanging 2-1 slider from Georgia’s Matt Scott 400 feet into the right field seats for his second two-run homer of the night to restore a five-run lead for the Sooners. Two batters later, Walk homered into the right field bleachers to make it 9-3. A two-run double in the top of the ninth by Jaxon Willits rounded out the scoring for Oklahoma.
“It was actually funny because when Dasan hit the second one, I was, like, you’re not trying to have a home run battle right now are you? And then I ended up hitting one, so I let him hear it a little bit,” said Walk. “I thought he was going for a third. But… it’s just awesome seeing Dasan putting in the work. And this team is just unbelievable.”
Kolby Branch led off the bottom of the ninth for Georgia with a solo homer, his 20th of the season, but the game had long ago been decided. It provided one final memory for the senior from Lucas, Texas, who smiled ear-to-ear as he rounded the bases, high-fiving his brother, Oklahoma second baseman Kyle Branch, on his way around the diamond.
You “can’t script it up any better. You kind of just — you’re down, what is it, eight runs, so you’re just trying to have a good at-bat. And you kind of have those emotions flowing through you because you know it’s your last one, most likely,” Branch said. “I got a pitch up and drilled it. And I saw Kyle and he was out there, he was smiling. And just, it’s a good moment. Got to high-five him and that was kind of cool, to wish him luck in the national championship.”
It was a final, brief flash of power from a team that hit 179 home runs this season, but saw their bats go cold when they reached Omaha.
“I was around some of the greatest players to ever play the game and nobody stays hot the whole year. It’s just baseball. I mean, I wish I could explain it more than that. I know it’s an old cliché. We didn’t change anything the way we did,” said Johnson, who spent four seasons as a pitching coach for the Minnesota Twins. “I mean after a while you get wore down and you’re not going to stay hot. And so I don’t think there’s anything we did different. We just got cold at the wrong time.”
Photo: Dasan Harris had a pair of two-run homers in the Oklahoma Sooners’ 11-4 win over Georgia that sent them to the championship series at the 2026 Men’s College World Series. (Photo courtesy of OU Baseball)
