Oklahoma shortstop Jaxon Willits at the College World Series, June 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Vera Nieuwenhuis)
After losing in the first round of the SEC Tournament, a long postseason run for the Oklahoma baseball squad looked unlikely. But the Sooners, just outside the top 25 when the regular season concluded, caught fire once the NCAA Tournament began. They were slotted into a regional with No. 2 Georgia Tech, beat the Yellow Jackets twice to win the regional, then swept Kansas in Lawrence in their super regional.
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And with an 11-5 win over No. 3 Georgia on Wednesday night, OU clinched a spot in the College World Series Finals against No. 5 North Carolina after the Tar Heels eliminated West Virginia.
A major part of Oklahoma’s core is shortstop and cleanup hitter Jaxon Willits. Through three CWS games, the junior is 7-for-13 with 4 RBIs, including a first-inning home run against Georgia on Monday and an RBI double in the rematch on Wednesday. He also clubbed a game-tying single in the bottom of the ninth inning in the regional final to help upset Georgia Tech.
Now hitting .305 on the year, Willits sees his team coming together at just the right time.
“We’re out there playing for one another, we’re playing with a chip on our shoulder,” Willits told D1Baseball.com after Wednesday’s game. “Nobody thought we were getting out of the regional, and we’re one of the last two teams standing.”
In the dugout with Willits has been his dad, Reggie, the team’s associate head coach under Skip Johnson. Reggie spent six years in the major leagues with the Los Angeles Angels (2006-11) and coached in the New York Yankees organization (2015-21) before joining OU’s staff in 2022. He also played at Oklahoma in the 2002 and ’03 seasons, then welcomed his son to the program in 2023-24.
Jaxon will soon be looking to follow in his dad’s and younger brother’s footsteps by becoming a pro. Jaxon is the older brother of Eli Willits, who was drafted No. 1 overall by the Washington Nationals in last year’s MLB Draft. Though Jaxon doesn’t project as a first-round pick, he’s ranked as the No. 146 prospect in this year’s draft by MLB.com and is expected to be selected in the first five rounds.
“You don’t see many players that have the baseball IQ in the modern game that he does,” Reggie told The Athletic about Jaxon. “He’s relentless in his work ethic and his preparation, how he goes about his business.”
A big part of who Jaxon is as a player and a person stems from his faith in Jesus.
“It’s my everything,” he told Sports Spectrum prior to the start of the CWS. “It’s the reason I wake up every day and do what I do. It’s to go out and glorify the Lord, and not to put 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 on the field.”
He shares about his faith regularly on social media, as well. He got married in 2024 and posted a photo with his bride, Abigail, with a caption that read, “Mr. and Mrs. Willits: ‘Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’ Mark 10:9.” The couple celebrated the birth of their first child, Gracee, on March 30, and Abigail shared Scripture in the caption, writing, “God has blessed us with the most sweetest little girl. We are so beyond grateful that HE chose us to be her parents! Our God is so good! ‘Every good and perfect gift is from above’ – James 1:17”
Jaxon’s Instagram profile cites Philippians 4:13, but he said a verse that’s resonated with him a lot lately is Psalm 20:7, which reads, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
“I feel like that’s something that I’ve really kept in my heart and something I’ve tried to show on the field,” he told Sports Spectrum. “It doesn’t matter what the world is talking about, what the world is trusting in, my trust is in the Lord and I trust that He’s going to take care of me and everything around me.”
Oklahoma and North Carolina begin the best-of-three championship series on Saturday. For OU, a championship would be the program’s first since 1994 and third overall, whereas a UNC title would be the first in program history.
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