A Jefferson County native is headed to Omaha.
Nate Smithburg, a 2022 Fairfield High School graduate from Libertyville, earned the win in relief as the University of Oklahoma swept No. 15 Kansas in the NCAA Lawrence Super Regional, punching the Sooners’ ticket to the College World Series for the first time since 2022. Oklahoma, unranked heading into the postseason, will open the College World Series against No. 7 Alabama at 2 p.m. CT Saturday in Omaha on ESPN.
Oklahoma had already taken Game 1 of the Super Regional on Saturday, June 6th with an 8-1 victory over the Jayhawks, putting the Sooners one win away from Omaha heading into the second game in the best-of-three series.
Game two had an unusual path to completion — originally scheduled for Sunday, June 7th, it was suspended in the third inning due to rain and lightning and resumed Monday afternoon with Oklahoma already holding an 8-1 lead. The Sooners picked up right where they left off. Freshman starter Xander Mercurius returned to the mound and completed 4.0 innings, striking out six, before Smithburg entered in relief with a runner on first base.
Smithburg proceeded to pitch 3.2 innings — allowing just one hit, one earned run, and one walk while striking out two on 36 pitches. The outing lowered his ERA from 3.21 to 3.06 and improved his record to 2-0 on the season. He has appeared in 18 games this season, pitching 17.2 innings with 16 strikeouts. His first win came at Arkansas on May 10th.
“Going to the College World Series means the world to me,” Smithburg said. “It’s not even the success of winning as much as it’s seeing the countless hours of work this team has put in finally paying off. This opportunity is what drew me to OU in the first place.”
When he took the mound, Smithburg said his mindset was simple. “When I took the mound there in Game 2 against KU, I was just thinking — do my job,” he said. “Our pitching staff is so good, I never thought I’d have the chance to go as long as I did. I was just focused on doing my job and getting it to the next guy. Towards the end of the outing I was just having fun out there, smiling through it all. It’s a moment I’d dreamed about since I was a kid.”
When the final out was recorded, he made a conscious effort to take it all in. “There at the end against KU, when we could see the end in sight and start to feel it — man, it was just special,” he said. “I really tried to slow down and take it all in.”
Oklahoma’s offense was equally dominant, finishing the game with four home runs. Catcher Deiten Lachance and right fielder Dasan Harris each hit two-run shots in the sixth inning, and designated hitter Trey Gambill added a solo homer in the eighth. The Sooners hit seven home runs across the two Super Regional games and 18 in seven NCAA Tournament games overall, winning 13-2 to complete the sweep and move to 38-22 on the year, according to University of Oklahoma Athletics.
Head coach Skip Johnson reflected on what the achievement meant. “We have a bunch of selfless players and they care about each other,” he said, per University of Oklahoma Athletics. “We went through a lot of adversity all year long and they fought through it and never wavered. That’s the great thing about baseball — you can be on a low and then be on a high.”
Smithburg said the unranked label never told the full story of what this team is. “The only odds this team has beaten are the odds the public gave them,” he said. “We have known how special this team is since the first practice of the year. We got off track coming down the stretch, but we knew we were gonna get everything rolling again, and when we did we were gonna be dangerous.”
The road to Omaha included an upset of No. 2 Georgia Tech in the Atlanta Regional before facing Kansas. It is Oklahoma’s 12th College World Series appearance.
From Libertyville to Omaha
Long before he was pitching in Super Regionals, Smithburg was on the little league diamond in Libertyville with his late father Erik and his brother Brad. “Me, my late dad Erik, and my brother Brad spent countless hours out there,” he said. “Those moments shaped my love for the game and my love for my teammates and family that I’ve made through the game.”
The first person he texted after the clinching win was Brad, who played baseball at Southeastern Community College. “I told him — remember sitting in grandma’s living room watching Oregon State play Arkansas in the national championship? Who would’ve thought one of us would be going there and having a chance to fight for a national title.”
Smithburg’s path to Oklahoma was built on a decorated high school career at Fairfield, where he was a three-time all-conference and all-district selection and a three-year letterman in baseball who also lettered in football and golf. As a senior he earned second-team all-state honors after going 6-1 with a 0.45 ERA and 83 strikeouts in 83.0 innings. From there he went to Indian Hills Community College in Centerville, where he made 20 appearances in each of his two seasons, posting a 2.97 ERA with 43 strikeouts in 2023 and a 4.18 ERA with 35 strikeouts in 2024. His performances earned him a transfer to Oklahoma, where he did not appear in a game in 2025 before breaking through this season with 16 strikeouts in 17.2 innings over 18 appearances.
The support from back home has meant everything. “It sounds clichéd but I can feel the support of everyone back home,” Smithburg said. “I have 100 people sending me messages, meanwhile teammates from hometowns of 500,000 people have maybe 15 or 20. I had Kory Klehm send me a message from the Fairfield High School team telling me congrats. It’s special to say the least — makes me feel like I’ve made some kind of impact on people back home. And in return, those people have made an even bigger impact on me.”
Oklahoma opens their College World Series against No. 7 Alabama on Saturday, June 13th at 2 p.m. CT in Omaha.
