The college baseball season started just over 110 days ago and the final eight teams have made it to the Men's College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. Oklahoma is making its first appearance in Omaha since 2022, when the Sooners made it all the way to the championship series before falling to eventual champion Ole Miss, which is also back again this year.
If you had told Sooner Nation that OU would make it to this part in this season, not many of them would have believed you, but after a magical run through the Atlanta Regional and Lawrence Super Regional, where they knocked off the ACC and Big 12 champions, the Sooners have found their way back to the promised land.
Oklahoma will take on SEC foe Alabama in its first game of the Men's College World Series at 2 p.m. CT Saturday. The crimson-clad opponents met in a conference series in Norman at the beginning of April. The Crimson Tide won two of three against the Sooners, but a lot has changed since then, which makes for even more anticipation as the two teams enter the final aspect of the season.
Alabama has been a consistent team near the top of the SEC standings throughout the entire season and had a pretty easy run through Regional and Super Regional play. They have stars all over the roster and a couple that fans need to look out for this weekend.
Read more: Even improved odds reveal there's still no belief in Oklahoma's MCWS title run
Justin Lebron
Justin Lebron started the 2026 campaign in the running to be the No. 1 pick in the upcoming MLB Draft. He has fallen to a mid-first round pick due to elements out of his control, but you can see the talent that gets MLB organizations so excited.
Lebron has started 59 games this season and has a .277 batting average with 13 doubles and a team-leading 16 home runs. He went 2-for-12 when the two sides met in Norman, but if he can show what he is capable of on the big stage, he could make things very difficult for the Sooners' pitching staff.
Tyler Fay
Tyler Fay has been an absolute stud for the Crimson Tide all season long. The season-long Friday night starter has put his team in a great position in every start and he has a lot of momentum on his side after his start against St. Johns in Game 1 of Super Regionals, where he threw 113 pitches in 7.1 innings and only allowed two hits and struck out nine Johnnies on the Crimson Tide's way to a 8-0 victory.
Fay pitched against the Sooners in their first meeting this season and threw 6.0 innings, allowing four runs on six hits in the Crimson Tide's 10-7 victory in Game 1 over the Sooners. The score can be very deceiving as Alabama got out to an early 8-1 lead and never looked back.
Hagan Banks
The final player is an extreme X-factor that a lot of people probably do not know much about, and that is Hagan Banks.
Banks has been a steady calming presence out of the bullpen the second half of the season and he nailed things down in Bama's regional final victory over Oklahoma State when he finished the final three innings while giving up one run to get his team to Super Regionals.
Banks did not pitch against St. John's in Super Regionals, so don't be surprised if we see him if things get shaky for the Tide early in Omaha.
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