The holy grail of college baseball, Omaha, Nebraska.
Two new blood programs, Tennessee and Texas A&M, are primed to win their first national championship on the diamond here in the 2024 College World Series Finals. Both the Volunteers & Aggies fan bases are very passionate fan bases who have traveled in droves to support their squads with anticipation and hopes of witnessing their programs first title.
Tony Vitello sticks with what’s worked so well for them 9 of the last 10 times with Chris Stamos as the opener and AJ Causey following behind him. Freshman of the Year, Gavin Grahovac leads off the game with a leadoff homer into the seats. Grahovac’s homer was the first leadoff homer in the College World Series Finals since Sam Fuld did it for Stanford in 2003 vs Rice.
Furthermore, it was his second homer off of Chris Stamos on an 0-2 count this season (May 23). The Aggies added another run in the first after running Stamos out after only 0.1IP, 2H, 2R, 1ER, 0K, 0BB. Ironically enough, this is the fourth straight game that a starter has only lasted exactly 0.1IP.
The theme for Texas A&M early was being patient like they’ve done all season and hitting mistake pitches from Tennessee.The did that repeatedly in the 3rd, plating 5 runs in the inning with Hayden Schott & Kaeden Kent plating 3 of the 5 runs. The Vols chipped away a run in the 2nd and 3rd but both offenses were quiet for the next 3 straight innings with both coaching staffs using pitchers strategically. The offenses got hot again in the 7th on both sides. The Aggies, put up a 2 spot thanks to Kaeden Kent who has been incredible this postseason since his insertion into the lineup following superstar Braden Montgomery’s season-ending foot injury in in game 1 of the Super Regionals vs Oregon.
Two of the three errors the Vols had gave the Aggies two runs and a lot of momentum throughout the game and the atmosphere felt in favor of A&M for the majority of the game. But the Volunteers don’t ever back down and are always in the fight. In the bottom half of the inning, with back to back home runs from Dylan Dreiling and Hunter Ensley who have both been playing very well here in Omaha. Dreiling entered the game batting .500 in 3 games and shows no signs of stopping, now 3-4 and a 2-run HR. Ensley has been amazing in the outfield as well.
With little to no hesitation, Coach Schlossnagel and Max Weiner go to the Stopper of the Year, Evan Aschenback to slam the door and close out the game. Aschenbeck does what he’s done all season long, shoving out of the pen and shutting it down, going 2.2IP, 2H, 0R, 7K, 0BB with everything working. I spoke with him after the game more about it and the benefit of throwing to a catcher like Jackson Appel and working with pitching coach Max Weiner.
Aggies take game 1 here in the College World Series Finals and are just one win away from the programs first ever national title in one of the big three sports. But Tony Vitello and Tennessee will give them everything they’ve got.