Oklahoma Baseball Natty Bound: The Sooners Smoke No. 3 Georgia 11-4 In The World Series Semis

OMAHA, Neb.- The bats come flying again in Omaha as the Sooners struck quickly in this 11-4 semifinal victory over the Georgia Bulldogs. This marks Oklahoma's second national championship appearance since 2022. The Sooners look to win their first national championship since 1994 and their third overall. 

The Sooners broke quite a few records in the semifinal contest. One of the most notable ones was that Oklahoma is only the second team in a single Men's College World Series to start three freshman pitchers. 

Nick Wesloski made the start for the Sooners and pitched 5 2/3 innings. He gave up just four hits, one run and struck out four batters. LJ Mercurius came in to relieve during the bottom of the sixth while Oklahoma was leading 5-1. He had a rough start, but Skip Johnson didn't give up on the junior right-hander. Georgia scored on two walks from LJ after an error from Tockey, making it 5-3 heading into the seventh. Since the two Bulldog runs in the sixth, LJ managed to force back-to-back 1-2-3 innings and only one run in the bottom of the ninth. 

While Oklahoma struggled to score in the previous world series matchup against Georgia on Monday, the offense was able to turn the hits into runs. The first two innings looked like a potential pitchers' dual. However, Jason Walk, Trey Gambill and Dasan Harris had other ideas. All three of them had homers with one being a solo shot from Walk in the top of the third, another solo by Gambill in the fourth and a two-run homer by Harris two batters later. Before this matchup, Harris had only four home runs the entire season. Tonight, he had two bombs, while Walk also having a pair of homers. 

After Harris hit an additional two-run home run in the top of the eighth, he became the first Sooner with a multi-home run game in Men's College World Series history. Walk became the second Sooner in the same inning. As a matter of fact, Oklahoma's five home runs were the second most by any team in the world series since 2011 (Florida had six in 2023). The Sooners (26 HR in the tournament) are also close to catching Georgia (29 HR in the tournament) for most homers in the NCAA tournament. Additionally, the homers in all ten NCAA tournament games continues to be longest streak of the season for the Sooners with at least one home run. 

Notable stats-

Jason Walk: 2-4, 2 HR, 2 RBIs, 2 runs

Trey Gambill: 4-5, HR, 3 RBIs, 2 runs

Dasan Harris: 2-5, 2 HR, 5 RBIs, 2 runs

UP NEXT: Oklahoma will face the No. 5 North Carolina Tar Heels in the finals in a best-of-three series. Game 1 will be on Saturday, June 20 at 7:00 p.m. on ESPN. Game 2 will be on Sunday, June 21 at 1:30 on ABC while the if necessary Game 3 will be on Monday, June 22 at 6:00 on ESPN. 

North Carolina defeated West Virginia in the other semifinal matchup 12-7 to advance to the championship series.