OMAHA, Nebraska – The Tennessee Volunteers have played 72 games this baseball season, a new program record.
Their 73rd game will decide whether they will become national champions or not.
Tennessee evened the best-of-three College World Series final against Texas A&M with a 4-1 victory in front of 25,987 fans at Charles Schwab Stadium Omaha on Sunday afternoon. Dylan Dreiling hit a two-run home run to right field with two outs in the seventh inning to give the Vols a 2-1 lead, and Cal Stark added a two-run home run to left field with two outs in the eighth inning.
“I’ve gotten emotional because I’m trying not to let you down here, but if we wanted a belt or any kind of trophy today, it was that we got to spend more time together than any other team in the country — just like Texas A&M,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said in a press conference. “We had a board meeting at the beginning of the season, and the guys wanted to lead the country in Velo(city) and RBIs and all kinds of crazy stuff.
“It was a bit of a trick question because the coaching staff wanted the players to have fun and spend as much time together as possible.”
The third and deciding game between the No. 1 Vols (59-13) and the No. 3 Aggies (53-14) is Monday at 7 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN. Both schools are seeking their first national title in the sport, with Texas A&M denied Sunday its first 10-0 run in the NCAA Tournament since UCLA in 2013.
Tennessee is trying to become the first Southeastern Conference baseball team to win 60 games in a single season.
Dreiling’s home run gave Tennessee its first title series lead, and Stark had been 0-for-16 with nine strikeouts before his big hit in the College World Series. The Vols have hit 182 home runs this season, making it a safe bet against the 1997 LSU Tigers’ NCAA record of 188.
“It was a great feeling to finally get that first goal,” Stark said. “Every kid dreams of playing at that age, and to have it happen so late in the game was pretty cool and something I’ll never forget.”
While Dreiling and Stark performed well at bat, Aaron Combs delivered on the mound, playing four hitless innings as a relief pitcher for the Vols and allowing three hits. Nate Snead got the final three outs and earned his sixth save of the year.
“Combs obviously ran the game very well for them,” Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “I think the difference was their two home runs with two outs. They made the big swings at the right time.”
AP Photo by Rebecca S. Gratz/Cannon Peebles of Tennessee, left, celebrates with Dylan Dreiling after Dreiling hit a two-run home run to give the Vols a 2-1 lead en route to a 4-1 victory in Game 2 of the best-of-three College World Series finals Sunday afternoon in Omaha, Nebraska.Zane Badmaev made his first start of the season for Texas A&M after compiling a 3-0 record and 2.70 earned run average in 16 appearances. Badmaev opened the game by allowing a single up the middle to Christian Moore, but then retired Blake Burke, Billy Amick and Dreiling, the last two by strikeout.
The Aggies struck first in their half of the first inning when Jace LaViolette hit a home run off Drew Beam into the right field seats with one out for a 1-0 lead.
Badmaev faced a batter in the second inning and allowed a single to center by Hunter Ensley before being replaced by Chris Cortez. The Vols had the bases loaded against Cortez with two outs and capitalized on a walk and an error, but Moore hit a groundout to second base to end the threat.
Tennessee had the bases loaded again against Cortez with two outs in the fourth inning, but Burke managed a groundout to second base. The Vols left eight runners on base in the first four innings.
“We just had to stay the course,” Moore said. “When you play this game, you understand it’s not always going to happen right away. You have to stay the course, support each other, have good hitting opportunities, and then something could happen.”
Beam responded to LaViolette’s home run by striking out the next five Aggies he faced, but in the bottom of the fifth inning he allowed an infield hit to Caden Sorrell and walked Ali Camarillo, sending Vitello to his bullpen for Combs.
After Camarillo’s walk, Beam received a well-deserved applause from Tennessee’s loyal fans in what was likely his last appearance with the Vols.
“Our record when he pitched was pretty damn good,” Vitello said. “His record in three years (26-7) was incredible and speaks to the kind of person he is.”
Cortez threw a career-high 99 pitches and faced 21 Tennessee batters, allowing just two hits. With runners on first and second base and one out in the sixth inning, he was replaced by Kaiden Wilson, who further frustrated the Vols by getting Stark to hit a ground ball and achieve a double play.
“It was an exciting win,” Vitello said. “Maybe it wasn’t the most exciting or whatever you want to call it, but there were a lot of teammates caring about their teammates, a lot of coaches picking players and a lot of players picking coaches as far as some of the decisions and things like that.”
Moore said: “It’s a 1-1 series. Somehow we just have to fight to win.”
Contact David Paschall at [email protected].
