Tennessee Baseball loses Game 1 of College World Series final
OMAHA, Nebraska – Four quick observations on Tennessee baseball’s 9-5 loss to Texas A&M in Game 1 of the 2024 College World Series final on Saturday night:
A familiar feeling for Tennessee
As it turned out, Tennessee started the championship series against Texas A&M just as badly as it did the College World Series against Florida State: badly. Defensive errors and the pitching duo of Chris Stamos and AJ Causey combined to allow many early runs.
FSU took a 7-4 lead with a six-run inning in the third.
Texas A&M took a 7-1 lead with a five-run inning.
In this case, Tennessee’s offense was unable to catch up enough against a highly touted collection of A&M pitchers to overcome an early deficit.
In both cases, however, Causey was relieved by Stamos in the first inning and struggled to limit the number of hits. And the Aggies, like the Seminoles, benefited from the Vols’ defense. Tennessee made three errors in the first five innings, the worst being a throwing error by third baseman Billy Amick in the third inning, followed by a two-run single.
The Vols made a similar number of mistakes to lose the first FSU game, only they managed not to actually lose it.
You can’t hope that lightning will strike twice.
For the first time in Omaha, these Vols face possible elimination in their second game on Sunday.
Two reasons for UT optimism
Tennessee still has Drew Brew and Zander Sechrist ready for the final two games of this series. Both have pitched well in previous CWS appearances.
Another: The Vols fell behind 9-2 but were able to get back on the offensive with home runs by Dylan Dreiling and Hunter Ensley in the seventh inning, forcing the Aggies to work harder than they would have otherwise from their bullpen. Evan Aschenbeck, who finished the game, entered the game in the seventh inning and threw more than 40 pitches. That could still matter in this series.
Not enough attack
It wasn’t a bad night for Tennessee’s hitters. The lineup just wasn’t consistently good.
Dreiling, Ensley, Blake Burke and Dean Curley combined for 11 of Tennessee’s 12 hits. (High marks for Dreiling, who had 4 of 5 hits.)
The rest of the Vols combined to go 1-for-19. Kavares Tears (0-for-5) left six men on base and struck out to end the game. Christian Moore (0-for-5) left two behind. And the Vols as a whole struck out 17 times against Texas A&M starter Ryan Prager and Co.
The Aggies put their chips in by throwing their ace in Game 1, and although Prager left in the fifth inning after throwing 81 pitches, 60 of those pitches were strikes, helping him dish out eight hits and limit the Vols’ powerful lineup to just two runs under his direction.
Meanwhile, the Aggies – who had recorded one CWS home run until Saturday – hit two over the fence, including a solo hit by Gavin Grahovac that set the tone in the game’s first at-bat.
Strong support for Vols
In a championship series involving two SEC teams with huge fan bases and no combined NCAA baseball titles, tickets will be difficult to come by, and it would be interesting to compare the fan representation of the two teams at Charles Schwab Field.
I would give Tennessee Orange credit for the lead in Game 1, but it was close. Let’s say 60-40 in favor of the Vols. But Texas A&M fans also came out and roared as the Aggies extended their lead. The atmosphere was anything but one-sided.
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at [email protected] and on the X-Platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.
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