Walk and Harris spark power surge in an 11-4 win over Georgia that sends Sooners to CWS finals

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.”

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports