OU Meets UNC in CWS Finals

OMAHA, Neb. – Oklahoma (41-22) meets No. 5 seed North Carolina (53-12-1) in the best-of-three CWS Championship Series beginning Saturday at 2 p.m. CT on ESPN. Game 2 is slated for a 1:30 p.m. start Sunday on ABC. Karl Ravech, Kyle Peterson, Chris Burke and Kris Budden will be on the call.

All games can be heard on the radio via The REF 99.3 FM/1400 AM and 107.7 The Franchise in Oklahoma and on The Varsity Network app with Toby Rowland and Carly Murray on the call. Tickets for the Men's College World Series are available via NCAAtickets.com.

THE BASICS

• The Sooners advanced to the champ series with a 3-0 start in Omaha, beating seven-seed Alabama 9-0 last Saturday before beating No. 3 seed Georgia twice (4-3, 11-4).

• OU is making its second CWS finals appearance in the last five years and fourth championship showing all-time (1951, '94, 2022).

• OU has been led by a trio of freshman pitchers, Cord Rager, Xander Mercurius and Nick Wesloski, en route to the champ series. Rager went seven innings of three-hit ball while striking out eight vs. Alabama, while Mercurius shut down the UGA offense in the first meeting, hurling 7.1 innings of three-run ball with a career-high nine strikeouts. Wesloski took his turn vs. UGA, going 5.2 innings and surrendering one earned run on four hits with four K's.

• OU is making its 12th CWS appearance in program history and second in the last five years this week in Omaha, Neb., at Charles Schwab Field Omaha.

• Oklahoma is seeking its third national title, winning titles in 1951 and 1994.

• En route to the CWS finals, Oklahoma has gone through the ACC regular season and tournament champ (Georgia Tech), the Big 12 regular season and tournament champ (Kansas) and the SEC regular season and tournament champ (Georgia).

OU IN THE NCAA TOURNEY

• OU has advanced to the College World Series 12 times including this season (1951, '72, '73, '74, '75, '76, '92, '94, '95, 2010, '22, '26).

• This is Oklahoma's 43rd NCAA Tournament appearance and fifth straight. The Sooners are 110-87 all-time in the NCAA postseason, and won national championships in 1951 and 1994.

• En route to its 12th appearance in Omaha, Oklahoma won its 15th regional in program history and third super regional.

• OU is 21-18 all-time at the College World Series and 6-2 under head coach Skip Johnson.

RECAPPING THE CWS RUN

• The Oklahoma bats belted five home runs and Nick Wesloski was the latest Sooner freshman to deal in the starting role as the Sooners, 11-4, Wednesday, to advance to the Championship Series.

• Dasan Harris and Jason Walk became the second duo to have a two-homer game in the same game in the history of CWS contests at Charles Schwab Field and Wesloski went 5.2 innings en route to the second win of his season.

• The Sooners have now won eight in a row.

• Freshman righty Xander Mercurius earned the first win of his collegiate career in his fourth start of the season Monday against the Sooners' 4-3 win over No. 3 Georgia.

• The frosh hurled 7.1 innings for a career-high nine strikeouts against a potent Bulldog lineup.

• Righty reliever Jackson Cleveland turned in 1.2 innings of scoreless ball to secure his ninth save of the year, stranding four runners combined and slamming the door in the ninth with the tying run in scoring position.

• Brock and Willits both went yard against Georgia's Caden Aoki, who the Sooners handed just his second loss vs. an SEC team this season.

• OU moved to 2-0 in the 2026 College World Series, needing one win to advance to the championship series.

• In the CWS opener vs. Alabama, freshman lefty Cord Rager continued his prolific postseason performance with seven innings of shutout ball, and the Sooner bats came up with timely hits as Oklahoma shut out Alabama, 9-0.

• It was OU's seventh shutout of the season, third in program history at the CWS and first since 1975.

• It was the largest shutout victory for a team in the opening game of the CWS since 2002.

• The Sooners put up their sixth-consecutive double-digit hit performance, and Rager notched a season-best 7.0 scoreless innings and tied a career high with eight strikeouts.

UP NEXT

• Game 2 of the championship series is set for Sunday at 1:30 p.m. CT on ABC. The if necessary game would be at 6 p.m. Monday evening on ESPN.

MORE CWS NOTES & NUGGETS

Georgia (Semifinals)

• Oklahoma has won eight in a row, its longest winning streak of the season.

• Wesloski made just his second start of the season, both of which have come in the NCAA Tournament and in consecutive starts. Wesloski hadn't pitched in a game since May 31.

• Oklahoma has started a freshman on the mound in every game of the CWS thus far (Rager, X. Mercurius, Wesloski). The trio has combined for 20 innings over the three starts, allowing only four earned runs across those starts.

• During OU's winning streak the Sooners have won seven games against top-20 teams including five against top-10 teams.

• Oklahoma bounced the ACC Champion (Georgia Tech), Big 12 Champion (Kansas) and SEC Champion (Georgia) during the NCAA postseason.

• Harris tallied the second multi-home run game of his career. He had one previously at Arkansas May 9.

• Walk posted the first multi-homer game of his career.

• Oklahoma tied its season high with five home runs. It hit five at Arkansas May 10.

• Walk and Harris both entered tonight's game with four homers apiece.

• Oklahoma has hit 43 home runs in the last 16 games, nearly half of its total of 91 this season.

• OU has hit 26 home runs in 10 NCAA Tournament games.

• OU's five home runs are the second most by a team in CWS games played at Charles Schwab Field (opened in 2011).

• Walk extended his hitting streak to 12 games and subsequently his reached base streak to 20 games, both of which are team bests.

• Oklahoma has scored first in six consecutive games. The last time an opponent scored first was during OU's 15-8 win at Georgia Tech May 31.

• All 11 of OU's RBIs and subsequently all five home runs came from left-handed hitters (Walk, Willits, Gambill, Harris).

• OU is tied with LSU with the most CWS Championship Series appearances in the last five years.

• Oklahoma went 3-0 to reach the CWS Championship Series this year, just as it did in 2022.

• The Sooners enter the championship series with 41 wins, the fewest by a team since the 2022 Ole Miss national championship team.

• Oklahoma is 3-0 against Georgia in postseason play over the last two years. The Sooners eliminated UGA in the 2025 SEC Tournament and in the 2026 CWS.

• Gambill posted the first four-hit game of his career.

• OU is 11-2 in neutral site games this season.

• The Sooners are now .500 (17-17) in games against SEC teams this year, going 14-16 in the regular season and 3-1 in SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament play.

Georgia

• The last time both starters (Aoki, Mercurius) went seven or more innings in a CWS game was in 2023 when Wake Forest's Rhett Lowder met LSU's Paul Skenes in the championship series.

• Brothers Kyle Branch (OU) and Kolby Branch (UGA) squared off in the first instance of brothers playing against one another in a College World Series game.

• It was only Aoki's second loss all season in games in which he's started against an SEC opponent.

• Oklahoma snapped Georgia's winning streak at nine games

• Mercurius' longest outing of the season prior to Monday was his 5.2 innings against Georgia Tech in the regional. He broke 100 pitches for just the second time on the year.

• Cord Rager and Xander Mercurius have combined for 14.1 innings of the 18 played at the College World Series, going 2-0 with 17 strikeouts and only three earned runs in that stretch.

• OU held UGA to 0-12 with runners on and 0-3 with runners in scoring position, with those three instances coming in the final two innings.

• OU is 11-3 in one-run games.

Alabama

• Rager turned in his third consecutive start of six or more innings, all of which have come in NCAA Tournament play. Prior to postseason play Rager had not gone longer than five innings.

• It was the largest shutout victory for a team in the opening game of the CWS since 2002.

• The shutout was OU's third at the College World Series in program history and first since 1975 (7-0, Eastern Michigan).

• Lachance hit his 12th home run since May 2, the most in NCAA Division I during that time span. It was Lachance's fourth homer in the NCAA Tournament.

• Rager is just the third Sooner in CWS history to spin seven or more shutout innings.

• Lachance posted his 16th multi-RBI game performance of the year, a team best.

• Three Sooners posted multi-hit days. Eight of OU's nine batters reached via at least one hit.

• Rager tied a season high with eight strikeouts. He's reached eight four times this year and twice in postseason play.

• OU has won the opening game of the College World Series seven of 12 times, including three straight.

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