Oklahoma Sooners upend Jayhawks in first game of NCAA baseball Super Regional
Oklahoma freshman pitcher Cord Rager allowed no runs and one hit in six strong innings while the Sooners’ bats accounted for three home runs off Kansas Jayhawks ace Dominic Voegele as OU defeated KU 8-1 in Game 1 of a best-of-three NCAA Tournament Super Regional baseball series on Saturday at jam-packed Hoglund Ballpark.
The Sooners’ victory means KU (45-17) must win Sunday’s 5 p.m. home game against OU (37-22), and then a Monday game, too, in order to advance to next week’s College World Series in Omaha.
OU, meanwhile, would wrap up the Super Regional title and earn that CWS berth with a victory over KU on Sunday.
The Sooners, who blasted three homers off Voegele, snapped KU’s six-game winning streak before a record Hoglund Ballpark crowd of 4,415.
The Jayhawks, who went 3-0 at their home regional last week, entered Saturday’s game with eight wins in nine games since dropping three consecutive home games to West Virginia May 8-10.
The Jayhawks, who had just four hits total to OU’s 11 on Saturday, had a chance to open the scoring in the first inning.
KU’s Tyson Owens was hit by a pitch (by the 6-foot-6 Rager) with one away. Augusto Mungarrieta followed with a single to left field. Owens, who tried to reach third, was gunned down by left fielder Brendan Brock, quelling the early threat.
A crucial error by KU shortstop Tyson LeBlanc proved costly in OU’s four-run fourth inning. With one out and runners on first and second, Brock hit a roller that instead of resulting in a double play was booted by LeBlanc to load the bases.
Dasan Harris plated the first run of the game by grounding out to second. Then, Dayton Tockey — who walked off Georgia Tech in a clinching regional victory on Monday — blasted a three-run homer to left-center. It was his seventh of the season and put OU up 4-0.
The Sooners plated three more off KU starter Voegele in the fifth. Jason Walk doubled off the center-field wall — it would have been a triple had he not slipped rounding second base.
Walk stole third and then trotted home when Camden Johnson clubbed his ninth home run of the season. Trey Gambill, after two fly-outs, swatted a homer to center, his ninth of the season, giving Oklahoma a 7-0 lead.
OU made it 8-0 with a run in the seventh inning
KU had a rough time scoring against the freshman Rager, who allowed just one hit. KU’s LeBlanc had two of the Jayhawks’ three errors. OU had one error.
The Jayhawks, down, 8-0, finally scored in the eighth inning on a home run by Jordan Bach (off L.J. Mercurius). It was KU’s second hit of the entire game.
This story was originally published June 6, 2026 at 8:42 PM.
