North Carolina and Oklahoma reached a 1-1 tie in the College Baseball World Series finals, sending the title to Game 3 at 7 p.m. ET on Monday night. The winner at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha will leave as the DI baseball national champion.
Rose, Wesloski set the tone
Jackson Rose was lined up to start for North Carolina, with Nick Wesloski getting the ball for Oklahoma. Rose entered Game 3 having allowed zero runs and three hits across 12 innings in the NCAA tournament, a clean run that gave North Carolina a short list of work it needed from the top of the staff.
Wesloski had already started twice in the NCAA tournament. He worked seven innings against The Citadel, allowing five runs, three earned, on six hits, then lasted 5.2 innings against Georgia and gave up three runs, one earned, on four hits. Both starters reached the deciding game with a longer postseason line than a typical first-year arm, and both teams were set to lean on them early.
Game 2 swung the series
Oklahoma opened the finals with a 9-3 win in Game 1, with Jason DeCaro starting for North Carolina. North Carolina answered in Game 2 with a 6-2 win behind Caden Glauber’s one-hit, five-inning shutout, and that result pulled the series back to even instead of letting Oklahoma carry the hot streak into the championship clincher.
That shift changed the shape of Monday night. Oklahoma entered the finals with momentum after the first game, but North Carolina stopped it before the title could be decided, and now the series was down to one game with no margin left for a slow start or a long bullpen bridge.
Forbes and Johnson face the turn
Scott Forbes and Skip Johnson were expected to have a quick trigger once the starters ran into trouble. Both teams had used a variety of arms to get to Monday, so the first bullpen move could decide who controlled the final innings at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.
The weather offered no interruption, with 79 degrees, sun and no chance of rain in sight, and sunset was not expected until 10 p.m. ET. That left the 2026 season to end under full daylight conditions, with North Carolina and Oklahoma turning one last game into the whole championship race.
