College World Series Bracket Finals 2026 Oklahoma vs. North Carolina Game 3 Score and Recap

The Oklahoma Sooners won their third baseball national title in program history on Monday night.

Oklahoma routed the North Carolina Tar Heels 13-2 to take Game 3 of the best-of-three championship series at the College World Series.

Five Sooners players recorded multiple hits in the win in which they scored runs in five of the nine innings.

Oklahoma took the lead in the second inning by way of Kyle Branch's RBI single.

Branch put the exclamation point on the championship-clinching win with a three-run homer to left field in the eighth.

Oklahoma had plenty of run-scoring hits in between the two vital involvements from Branch, the No. 9 hitter.

Dayton Tockey hit the only other Oklahoma home run in the fifth inning.

That occurred one frame after the Sooners posted three in the fourth to break away from the Tar Heels by five runs.

The Nos. 6-9 hitters in the Oklahoma lineup went 9-for-17 with nine RBI. Branch led the Sooners with six runs driven in from the No. 9 spot.

LJ Mercurius was the star on the mound for the Sooners. He allowed one earned run on four hits across 5.1 innings.

Mercurius' success on the mound allowed for Oklahoma to break away from its ACC foe in the middle innings.

Oklahoma won its first College World Series title since 1994 and extended the SEC's winning streak in Omaha to seven straight College World Series victories.