Oklahoma Baseball Wins First National Title in 31 Years With 13-2 Rout of North Carolina

Oklahoma just did something it hasn’t done since 1994. The Sooners hammered North Carolina 13-2 in the College World Series final Tuesday night, clinching the series 2-1 and bringing a baseball national championship back to Norman for the first time in three decades.

It wasn’t close. The Tar Heels had no answers once Oklahoma’s bats got going.

UNC starter Jackson Rose struck out leadoff man Jason Walk to start the game and looked like he might set a tone. He got through the first inning clean, stranding a couple of Sooners after a tag-out at second base. But that was about as good as it got for North Carolina.

Kyle Branch changed everything in the second inning. After a fielder’s choice put an early out on the board, Branch lined a single to right field that drove in two runs and opened the floodgates. The Sooners never trailed after that.

Dayton Tockey added a solo home run in the fifth inning, and Branch crushed a two-run homer in the eighth to officially put the game out of reach.

Pitching that held up when it mattered

Right-hander Nick Wesloski gave Oklahoma a solid start, striking out three batters over two innings and leaving two Tar Heels stranded in the second. He handed the ball to Xander Mercurius, who struck out five and allowed four hits over the rest of the way to earn the win.

It wasn’t a perfect outing by any means. But it was enough. And with the offense doing what it did, it didn’t need to be perfect.

This is Oklahoma’s third baseball national title overall. The first one came way back in 1951, then again in 1994. The 31-year gap between championships is the longest in program history, which makes this one feel a little different.

Even Jim Ross, the legendary wrestling announcer and lifelong Sooners fan, managed to chime in from a hospital bed during the run. The team has not confirmed any direct messages but fans online noted Ross posted about the series while recovering from a recent procedure. That kind of energy follows a team that finds a way to win when it counts.

Oklahoma started slow in Omaha, dropping the opening game before battling back through the double-elimination bracket. Nobody panicked. The bats eventually showed up and the pitching staff did just enough.

Now there’s a trophy in Norman that hasn’t been there since the Clinton administration.