A rematch with major implications brought the Georgia Bulldogs against the Sooners of Oklahoma in a rematch of Monday night’s instant classic that sent Georgia to the loser’s bracket, where they’d be forced to play Texas once again in the College World Series while the Sooners earned a much-needed rest day on Tuesday. On one side of this, you have the Sooners, who are among the hottest teams since starting Regionals, then you have the Georgia Bulldogs, a program that came to the College World Series as the clear-cut favorite to win it all, but as baseball goes, the best team on paper might not always win the championship. 

Oklahoma first made a name for itself this postseason by taking the Atlanta Regional by eliminating Georgia Tech, before taking down Kansas in two games in Lawrence. Now, they have wins over Alabama and Georgia in the College World Series and would need one more win to reach the College World Series Finals Series against North Carolina. Then on Monday night, Oklahoma earned the 4-3 victory over Georgia to advance to the College World Series Semi-Final round. As a reminder, Georgia would have to beat Oklahoma twice for the season to end for the Sooners. 

For Georgia, Wednesday night would be the second night in a row of playing elimination baseball, where every pitch mattered more than the last. A loss and the legendary season would come to a disappointing end just shy of winning a National Championship. Coming into the College World Series, the only trophy Georgia was lacking was the final prize; they won the SEC outright, the SEC Tournament, the Athens Regional and Super Regional, not to mention all the personal trophies the guys have collected for various college baseball honors. 

Oklahoma would strike first in the top half of the third with a solo shot to center field from Jason Walk, which would give the Sooners an early 1-0 lead. Oklahoma would add three more runs in the top half of the 4th inning off a solo shot from Trey Gambill and a three-run shot from Dasan Harris to extend the Sooners’ lead to 4-0 over Georgia. Oklahoma would add a run in the 6th, and a run in the 7th to extend the lead to 6-3 before blowing the game wide open with a three-run 8th inning, capped off by home runs again from Jason Walk and Dasan Harris to extend the lead to 9-3. Oklahoma would score two more insurance runs in the top half of the 9th inning, extending the lead to 11-3 over the Bulldogs. As it would in the great sport of baseball, the final Georgia run of the season would be off a solo shot to left field from Kolby Branch to cut the Sooners’ lead to 11-4 in the bottom of the 9th inning. 

Combined with the offensive power, Oklahoma had an incredible night from its pitching staff, who did what they had to do to ride the mometum of the bats and kept Georgia at bay. 

Truly an incredible performance from Oklahoma tonight, they smelled blood in the water early and never took their foot off the throttle. Now, the Sooners will likely have the homefield advantage and a destiny-style run in the College World Series to ride the mometum from heading into the Championship Series against the Tar Heels.

In what seems like a yearly tradition, we see a team nobody is talking about go on a run of a lifetime, and this year that has been the Sooners, and now as the page turns to the National Championship best-of-three series, the Sooners might just be a team of destiny to win their first National Championship since 1994. Oklahoma will face North Carolina starting on Saturday night in a best-of-three series for the National Championship. 

Photo Credits- OU Baseball on X