Oklahoma's Jaxon Willits is presented with the award for MOP of the CWS, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
The Oklahoma Sooners put an exclamation point at the end of their incredible run through the college baseball postseason on Monday. They left no doubt with a 13-2 victory against North Carolina in a winner-take-all Game 3 to capture the 2026 College World Series (CWS) and bring a third baseball national championship trophy back to Norman (1951 and 1994).
The Sooners shut down the Tar Heels’ bats and wore out the Tar Heels’ arms before a partisan crowd in Omaha, Nebraska. Oklahoma plated two in the top of the second inning and never looked back. The route — and celebration — was on.
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One of the stars of the night was Oklahoma shortstop Jaxon Willits, who recorded three hits and two RBIs in four at-bats with two walks. The junior from Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, came through for the Sooners as he’s done all tournament long, and as a result was named the CWS Most Oustanding Player.
“First off, I gotta give all glory to God,” he told ESPN on the diamond, with tears still in his eyes, moments after the victory. “… I’ve been wanting to win a national championship for the Oklahoma Sooners since I could remember, and to actually do it, I don’t have words to describe it.”
Willits batted a combined 13-26 during Oklahoma’s six games in Omaha, including four doubles and a home run. He amassed seven RBIs and crossed the plate himself six times. In the Atlanta Regional, he also batted .500 (9-18) with six RBIs, two doubles, four walks and a home run.
Willits’ late-season surge propelled the Sooners to an 11-2 postseason run that saw them take down No. 2 Georgia Tech in the regional, then No. 15 Kansas in the super regional, then No. 7 Alabama, No. 3 Georgia and No. 5 North Carolina in the CWS. Oklahoma’s only losses during the stretch came against the Yellow Jackets and Tar Heels.
On May 19, a deep postseason run for the Sooners looked exceedingly unlikely. They had just lost to LSU in the first round of the SEC Tournament, held a 32-21 record and were below .500 in the SEC. But Willits — son of Sooners associate head coach and former player Reggie Willits and brother of MLB’s 2025 No. 1 pick Eli Willits — never wavered in his belief that the Sooners were capable of something special.
“We knew that the talent was always in the room,” he said in Monday’s postgame press conference. “And that’s something that [head coach Skip Johnson] and all the coaches preached to us from Day One in the fall.”
Yet while Willits credited the coaching staff for OU’s turnaround, Johnson pointed back at Willits.
“Jaxon Willits getting the MVP was really fitting,” he said, “because he’s one of our hardest workers, and he’s our best leader.”
Willits is a leader for his team, both as a baseball player and as a follower of Christ.
“[Faith is] the reason that I wake up every day and do what I do,” he told Sports Spectrum prior to the start of the CWS. “It’s to go out and glorify the Lord and put not the focus on me but to put the focus on Him, and let people see Him in the way I act and the way I represent Him.”
Oklahoma junior pitcher LJ Mercurius said in Monday’s press conference while glancing in Willits’ direction, “We started a little Bible study there and we had about 20-something dudes show up, and we were just giving it to God. … We just came together through our faith.”
Oklahoma redshirt junior pitcher Nate Smithburg told Sports Spectrum at the beginning of the CWS that God sustained him through the uncertainty of a career-threatening Tommy John surgery last year.
“I found God in those moments,” he said, “and He got me through everything.”
The faithful tone set by Willits is one the coaches have also embraced; Johnson said he spent a large part of Game 3 praying for his players and asking for Jesus’ intercession on their behalf.
Willits is clearly eager to share about his faith, which he does on social media as well. His Instagram and X profiles both cite the Bible verse Philippians 4:13. He got married in 2024 and on March 30, he and Abigail welcomed daughter Gracee Kate Willits into the world. Instagram posts documenting both events included Scripture quotations.
On the day after Father’s Day, with his wife and daughter in the stands and his earthly father in the dugout, his Heavenly Father give Willits the gift he’d been dreaming about since he first picked up a baseball.
He gave him the gift of becoming a national champion for the Oklahoma Sooners.
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