Is 2024 College World Series over? Taking a look at the Tennessee Volunteers' run
The Tennessee Volunteers won their first-ever national championship, holding off the Texas A&M Aggies 6-5, in Game 3 of the 2024 College World Series Final on Monday at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Volunteers built a 6-1 lead in the first seven innings and prevented a monumental collapse to end the best-of-three finals series, 2-1. Dylan Dreiling went 2-for-2 with one home run and three RBIs to lead Tennessee to become the first No. 1 seed to win the national title in 25 years and the first 60-win SEC team in history.
Dreiling scored Blake Burke on a sacrifice fly to give the Volunteers a 2-1 lead at the bottom of the third. He then blasted a two-run home run on a 0-1 pitch that also scored Billy Amick on the seventh and gave Tennessee a 5-1 advantage.
Christian Moore led off with a homer down the left-field line to give the Tony Vitello-coached squad a 1-0 lead. Texas A&M tied the game at 1-1 after Travis Chestnut reached home after a single from Gavin Grahovac.
The tied ballgame would not last as Dreiling's RBI on a sacrifice fly and Dean Curley's RBI single that scored Hunter Ensley handed the Vols a 3-1 spread.
Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle called up relief ace Evan Aschenbeck in the sixth to hold off Tennessee's bats as they await a possible hit surge in the last three innings. Schlossnagle's gamble almost paid off if not for the bad seventh-inning stretch where the reliable Aschenbeck leaked three runs – two from Dreiling's home run and an RBI from Kavares Tears that scored Ensley.
The Aggies bats would wake up in the eighth and ninth as they scored two runs each, but Aaron Combs struck out Ted Burton to record a save and allowed Tennessee to celebrate around Charles Schwab Field.
Tennessee pitcher Zander Sechrist earns win; Dreiling takes CWS Best Player award
Tennessee starting pitcher Zander Sechrist recorded the win to cap his collegiate career. Sechrist pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed a run and six hits. He struck out seven and walked one batter.
Dylan Dreiling, on the other hand, was adjudged as the best player of the College World Series. Dreiling became the first player in CWS Finals history to homer in all three games. He scored all those homers in the seventh inning of each game. The sophomore finished with 13 hits in the CWS with three homers and 11 RBIs.
Texas A&M starter Justin Lamkin took the loss as he allowed three runs and five hits in 2 2/3 innings. He had two strikeouts and two walks.
The Volunteers swept all of the college baseball titles available this season, including the SEC Eastern Division, regular season and tournament championships; NCAA regional and super regional titles and capped it off with the national championship, winning the last two CWS final games over the equally-talented Texas A&M.
Which moment was the turning point of Tennessee's CWS Finals run? Let us know your views in the comments section below.