06/17/26 10:39:00
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06/17 22:38 CDT Walk and Harris spark power surge in an 11-4 win over Georgia
that sends Sooners to CWS finals
Walk and Harris spark power surge in an 11-4 win over Georgia that sends
Sooners to CWS finals
By ERIC OLSON
AP Sports Writer
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) --- Jason Walk and Dasan Harris each hit two home runs and
Trey Gambill also went deep to lead Oklahoma to the College World Series finals
with an 11-4 win over Georgia on Wednesday night.
The Sooners (41-22) will meet North Carolina in the best-of-three championship
round beginning Saturday night. They're in the finals for the first time since
2022 and will be playing for a third national title in baseball.
Oklahoma's five homers were a season high and a continuation of the heater the
Sooners have been on since the second week of May. OU has hit 43 of its 91
homers in the last 16 games, including 26 in 10 NCAA Tournament games. The
Sooners had 48 in their first 47 games.
"When you go back and look at what we've done in the fall and spring, we never
stopped believing and those guys really turned around our year," said coach
Skip Johnson, whose team one month ago was coming out of a run of seven losses
in nine games and on its way to an 11th-place finish in the Southeastern
Conference.
Walk and Harris were improbable power sources. Each entered the game with four
homers.
Walk sent a wind-aided flyball 417 feet over the wall in straightaway center
field leading off the third inning. In the fourth, Gambill and Harris went deep
to make it 4-0 and chase Georgia starter Paul Farley (8-2). Harris and Walk
connected again in the eighth to give the Sooners a six-run lead.
"Just trying to be a tone setter," Walk said. "We had great at-bats before we
even scored. I knew what we had in the lineup, and it was a good day to hit."
Harris' five RBIs were his most in 107 career games, and three of his six
homers have come in the last four games.
"I dreamed of this moment since I was a little kid and I wanted to come here,"
said Harris, who arrived at OU in 2024 as a walk-on. "To be able to be put in
these spots is something special."
OU freshman starter Nick Wesloski (2-1) held the Bulldogs (53-14) to one run in
the first five innings but ran into trouble in the sixth and was pulled with
two outs and two men on base. An error loaded the bases, and reliever LJ
Mercurius walked in two runs. Mercurius earned his fourth save after allowing
one run on two hits in 3 1/3 innings.
"OU is playing real hot baseball right now," Bulldogs coach Wes Johnson said.
"They're at their peak."
Georgia had one of the nation's most potent offenses all season but struggled
at the cavernous Charles Schwab Field.
The Bulldogs arrived at the CWS leading the nation with a program-record 174
homers and was in the top five with 9.4 runs per game and a .326 batting
average. They got a ninth-inning homer from Kolby Branch to finish with five in
four CWS games. They averaged four runs per game and batted .183.
Daniel Jackson, who won the Dick Howser Trophy as the nation's player of the
year, batted .157 with a home run Monday that gave him 32 for the year.
"The offense kind of struggled at times," Branch said. "That hasn't been us all
season. Sometimes you're rolling, and sometimes you lose a little mojo."
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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
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