Men’s College World Series: Oklahoma Rides Freshman Mercurius’s Stellar Start to 4-3 Win Over Georgia

OMAHA, Neb. – Ty Peeples danced off first, taking a cautious lead. Representing the tying run for Georgia, who trailed Oklahoma 4-3 in the top of the ninth, he still had 270 feet to go.

When Cole Johnson was hit on the upper arm by the 1-2 offering from Oklahoma reliever Jackson Cleveland, he was 90 feet closer and the winning run was on first.

After Tre Phelps struck out on three pitches, up came Daniel Jackson, the leading home run hitter on a team full of mashers who already had homered once in the game, and Cleveland induced a fly out to center that ended the game, preserving the value of a spectacular outing by Oklahoma starter Xander Mercurius, a freshman making just his fourth career start.

Mercurius threw 7 1/3 innings and recorded a career-high nine strikeouts, out-dueling Georgia’s Caden Aoki as the Sooners took a 4-3 win that puts them one win away from the championship series at the 2026 Men’s College World Series.

“I’m really proud of him. His fastball command’s been there for a while. And our strength coach and our trainer, they helped him get better and better in our development program to tick his velocity up. He’s been up to 99 miles an hour this year,” Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson said of his freshman starter. “So I still think that in that game today, we’re talking about it, I know he pitched a great game. He rushed some pitches. He rushed some pitches where he tried to make them swing and miss instead of executing a pitch. That’s the thing we learn from it, just execute it.”

Aoki, who took the loss, allowed four runs over eight innings, striking out six and walking none, staying in the game despite throwing 30 pitches in the first inning when his pitches, by his own admission weren’t great.

Jason Walk doubled to lead off the game for Oklahoma, and Camden Johnson was hit by Georgia starter Caden Aoki’s 0-1 pitch to give the Sooners runners at first and second with no outs. After Deiten Lachance grounded out, Jaxon Willits hit Aoki’s 2-2 fastball to the right center field gap, where it carried to the fence, hitting the padding above the yellow home run line and caroming off the rail for a three-run homer.

“Not to sugarcoat it — my stuff was really bad early on. Like, it was, simply put. And I kind of knew that. I kind of realized that pretty early. And they didn’t miss the pitches that I left in the heart of the plate,” Aoki said following the game. “I just had to take a step back and really just change my mindset, to be honest. It was a trying day on the mound. But sometimes those are — it’s just what you have to do sometimes. So I felt better as the game went on. I just had to stick to my approach and stick to my mindset and kind of realize where my stuff was. And I just had to elevate my game towards the end of it.”

After three scoreless innings where the Bulldogs were only able to get one hit off Mercurius, Kenny Ishikawa hit a solo homer to right with two outs in the fourth to get Georgia on the board. Ryan Wynn followed Ishikawa with a double, but the rally was stifled when Wynn was picked off second by Oklahoma starter Xander Mercurius. It was the kind of play they had worked on endlessly through fall practices and saw the payoff on college baseball’s biggest stage.

“The first pitch he was on second, he was doing a five-step lead, and on his fifth step he still had his chest facing third. And he went 0-1. So, I’m, like, well, I’m not going to it with an 0-1 count. But if he throws a ball here we’re going to run a pick,” said Oklahoma shortstop Jaxon Willits, who took the throw from Mercurius and made the tag. “He threw a change-up in the dirt, and I’m, like, man, now’s the time now’s the opportunity. So we ran a quick pick. And I feel like all the times that nobody wants to work on that in the fall when it’s 100 degrees and everybody’s complaining that we have to do team defense for 45 minutes, it all came together in that one play.”

Brendan Brock restored the three-run Oklahoma lead in the fourth, hitting a solo homer to right field.

Another Georgia solo homer, this time by Brennan Hudson in the fifth, cut the Sooners’ lead to 4-2.

For the next 2 1/3 innings, Mercurius again kept the Bulldogs off the scoreboard and mostly off the basepaths, save for a seventh-inning walk to Kolby Branch, until Daniel Jackson hit his 32nd homer of the year with one out in the eighth, a 446-foot blast to right center that cut the lead to 4-3 and ended Mercurius’ night.

Asked what he said to head coach Skip Johnson in the dugout to convince his coach to keep him in the game, Mercurius said, “I just kept pounding my chest, just telling him I’m good. I honestly felt amazing. I guess I heard my velo dropped at the end. But I felt amazing. I just kept pitching with conviction and just trusted all my stuff.”

Rylan Lujo followed Jackson’s homer with a single, and Kenny Ishikawa drew a two-out walk to bring up Wynn.

But the fly ball to the warning track ended the rally, and then came the ninth, where Jackson flew out to end the game.

Oklahoma improved to 40-15 and will face the winner of tomorrow’s 8 p.m. EDT game between Georgia (52-13) and Texas (46-14) on Wednesday, where a win would send Oklahoma to the championship series for the first time in four years.

Photo: Oklahoma pitcher Lj Mercurius (22) celebrates after an NCAA baseball College World Series game against Alabama, Saturday, June 13, 2026 in Omaha, Neb. Oklahoma won 9-0. (AP Photo/Vera Nieuwenhuis)