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LAWRENCE, Kan. – For the 12th time in program history and the second time in the last five years, Oklahoma baseball is going to the College World Series. The Sooners completed a 13-2 win over No. 15-seed Kansas Monday afternoon to sweep the NCAA Lawrence Super Regional.
The Sooners (38-22) will play in the College World Series for the second time under ninth-year head coach Skip Johnson and first since they finished as national runner-up in 2022.
“It was a special win today,” Johnson said. “We beat a really good baseball team. (Kansas head coach) Dan Fitzgerald is a very good coach, and you can see the energy he’s brought here is incredible. It was a great atmosphere and tough to play them. I’d like to thank our coaches, support staff, administration, everybody that’s involved in our baseball program. It really means more to the players, because they’re the ones that did it.
“We have a bunch of selfless players, and they care about each other. I’m thankful to even get the opportunity to coach them. Our job as coaches is to get those guys through excuses and teach them to be selfless. Where does it go from here, I don’t know. But I can tell you this: we’ll go up there and fight and claw. We went through a lot of adversity all year long, and (our players) fought through it and never wavered, and kept battling and kept battling and kept battling. That’s the great thing about baseball. I still say it’s the best game in the world, because you can be on a low and then be on a high. It’s really good.”
After an 8-1 victory over the Jayhawks (45-18) in the Super Regional opener on Saturday night, Oklahoma jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the first three innings of Game 2 on Sunday night before inclement weather forced the overnight suspension of play. When the game resumed at noon on Monday, OU kept its hot bats rolling with four runs in the sixth inning and another in the eighth.
Oklahoma hit four home runs in the second game of the Super Regional, increasing its total to seven in the Super Regional and 18 in seven NCAA Tournament games. First baseman Dayton Tockey’s solo homer in the third inning immediately preceded the weather delay and made the score 8-1. Catcher Deiten Lachance and right fielder Dasan Harris each hit two-run homers in the sixth inning and designated hitter Trey Gambill added a solo shot in the eighth.
Freshman Xander Mercurius started the game on Sunday night and returned to the mound for the resumption on Monday and completed 4.0 innings, striking out six batters and allowing one run on three hits and two walks.
Junior Nate Smithburg (2-0) relieved him with a runner on first and pitched 3.2 innings to earn his second win of the season. He struck out two and only surrendered one hit, a solo home run by KU shortstop Tyson LeBlanc in the eighth inning. Junior Jason Bodin got the final out of the eighth inning and senior Jackson Cleveland closed out the win with a scoreless ninth.
The start of the game, originally scheduled for 5 p.m. Sunday, was delayed by rain and lightning until 7:30 p.m., then with lightning in the area, entered the delay in the bottom of the third inning at 8:40 p.m. The game resumed at noon on Monday.
OU, as the home team for the second game of the Super Regional, scored a run in the bottom of the first inning when center fielder Jason Walk scored from third base on a double play groundout. After KU tied the game on an RBI single by right fielder Jordan Bach in the top of the second, the Sooners responded with six runs in the bottom half to move ahead 7-1.
Harris knocked an RBI single through the infield and left fielder Brendan Brock came home on a safety squeeze bunt single by second baseman Kyle Branch. Third baseman Camden Johnson drew a bases-loaded walk, Lachance lined a two-run single to left field. Brock was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to cap the second-inning scoring. It was the second time in the frame he was hit by a pitch, as OU sent 12 batters to the plate.
Tockey led off the home half of the third inning with a 402-foot home run to right center field to make it 8-1. It was his eighth homer of the season, sixth in the last nine games and his third straight game with a home run. He has five home runs in seven NCAA Tournament games.
Kansas starter Mason Cook (5-2) pitched 1.1 innings and took the loss.
Pitchers of Record
Win: Nate Smithburg (2-0)
Loss: Mason Cook (5-2)
Statistical Snapshot
- Deiten Lachance | 2-for-5, HR, 4 RBI
- Dasan Harris | 2-for-5, HR, 3 RBI
- Dayton Tockey | 2-for-4, HR, RBI
- Trey Gambill | 2-for-5, HR, RBI
- Brendan Brock | 2-for-2, RBI, 3 HBP
- Jason Walk | 2-for-4, 2B, BB
- Camden Johnson | 1-for-2, RBI, 3 BB
- Xander Mercurius | 4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
- Nate Smithburg | 3.2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Notes
- Oklahoma will make its 12th College World Series appearance and third since 2010 (last was a national runner-up finish in 2022).
- OU won its fifth game in a row and moved to 38-22 on the year.
- Xander Mercurius started in his third straight appearance after making his first 15 mound appearances in relief.
- In his two NCAA Tournament starts, the true freshman Mercurius has pitched 9.2 innings and struck out 14 batters.
- Dayton Tockey hit his eighth home run of the season and sixth in OU’s nine games since May 16. He has five home runs in seven NCAA Tournament games.
- Tockey has 11 RBI in his last nine games after not recording an RBI over his previous 19 contests (dating back to Feb. 28).
- Deiten Lachance tied his season high with four RBI and hit his team-leading 15th home run of the season. All 15 of his home runs have come in the last 28 games since April 9, and 11 have come in 17 games since May 2.
- Lachance leads the team with 62 RBI this season and 11 RBI in the NCAA Tournament.
- Dasan Harris hit his fourth home run of the season and first in the NCAA Tournament on Monday. He has driven in 10 runs in the NCAA Tournament and has 23 RBI this season.
- Trey Gambill homered in his second straight game and now has 10 home runs this season and four in the NCAA Tournament. He has 35 RBI this season and eight in seven NCAA Tournament games.
- Brendan Brock has nine RBI in the NCAA Tournament and 52 RBI this season.
- Since May 9 at Arkansas (13 games), Oklahoma has hit 35 home runs.
- OU has scored 70 runs on 90 hits in its seven NCAA Tournament games.
- Gambill and Jason Walk extended their team-leading hitting streaks to nine games. Walk has reached base in 17 straight games, and Jaxon Willits has a 13-game reached base streak.
Up Next
Oklahoma will face No. 7-seed Alabama in its College World Series opener at 2 p.m. CT Saturday in Omaha, Neb. The game will be televised on ESPN.
