Oklahoma's Balance Carried the Sooners to a Third National Title

Everything fell into place just in time.

Oklahoma caught fire in the NCAA Tournament, fulfilling its early-season potential, to win the program’s third national title.

Monday’s 13-2 win over North Carolina sealed the championship.

The entire OU lineup shredded all challengers in the NCAA Tournament, displaying balance top-to-bottom that was perfectly exemplified in Dayton Tockey and Kyle Branch.

The duo powered the offense from the bottom of the order, each homering to ensure the Sooners would be the last team standing in Omaha.

Branch was particularly lethal. He went 3-for-4 with six RBIs on Monday.

“I was just competing,” Branch said. “It was a two-strike approach. Skip's been telling me to hit and run the past couple days. And that's really all I was thinking about, but got a pitch up and then just continued to play hard and play pitch to pitch.”

Branch hit .232 in SEC play in the regular season, hitting two home runs and driving in 12 RBIs. In the NCAA Tournament alone, Branch hit .262, and his home run on Monday brought his tournament total to 12 RBIs.

“He's an unbelievable kid,” OU coach Skip Johnson said. “He works extremely hard. And he scuffled a little bit this year. But guys with the right attitude come up in the best moments of the game. That's what baseball does. If you keep persevering through it, you come up with the right attitude, and the game will pay you back.”

One spot in front of Branch, Tockey enjoyed an even better run through the postseason.

Tockey got 18 at-bats in conference play in the regular season, hitting .222 with a long ball and driving in two runs.

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Since the beginning of the Atlanta Regional, Tockey went 15-for-47 (.319) and he hit six homers and totaled 10 RBIs.

“Everybody in this program is tough. … Tough as nails,” Tockey said. “It’ll continue to be that way. Skip’s not going to recruit any soft guys. And you can’t be soft to play the schedule that we did and to go through the last month that we did.”

That toughness and Johnson’s next-pitch mentality carried the Sooners through a postseason run that will be remembered for years to come.

“I don't know what it is about the game,” Johnson said. “It's the spirit of the game. It protects those guys who continue to work at it and attack it, and it exploits the guys that are afraid of it and they're timid.”

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