Texas A&M advances to College World Series finals! – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

“I’m tired of leaving before the championship, so for me personally, it’s great and fun to be a part of it,” he said after his Aggies knocked Florida out of the tournament with a 6-0 win on Wednesday night. “I’m excited to play against a great Tennessee team, one of the best college teams I know — I mean, they really have a great team.”

The Aggies (52-13) will play in the best-of-three championship series against the number 1 seed Tennessee (58-12) starting Saturday. For the second time in a row and the third time in four years, it will be a pure SEC final.

Justin Lamkin gave Texas A&M a sensational start against the Gators for the second time in a row and Caden Sorrell decided the game with a home run.

Hours after Florida had 14 hits and scored the third-most runs of the season in a 15-4 win over Kentucky, the Gators (36-30) had just four hits and remained scoreless for the first time in 145 games.

The last team to beat the Gators to zero? Texas A&M, 10-0 in the 2022 SEC Tournament.

“It’s like going full steam ahead, winning the game this morning and coming back to the hotel, everyone’s in a good mood, we’re feeling really good tonight and it just didn’t go the way we wanted it to,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “It’s as simple as that and Texas A&M deserves to advance.”

Schlossnagle, who lost starter Shane Sdao to an arm injury in the Super Regionals, turned to Lamkin for a second game against the Gators in Omaha. Lamkin had a strong performance on Saturday in a 42-pitch, three-inning outing. He was even better on Wednesday, holding the Gators scoreless for five innings and recording nine strikeouts.

“I think the biggest part of it is just having confidence in myself and knowing that I can go out there and compete and play at that level,” Lamkin said. “And I think that’s really helped me get ahead of the hitters and just having real confidence in all of my pitches.”

There was a scary moment in the ninth inning when Florida right fielder Ashton Wilson hit his head on a padded post on the fence between the bullpen and the field while trying to catch Ali Camarillo’s hit that resulted in a triple. Wilson appeared dazed, was tended to by an athletic trainer and coach Kevin O’Sullivan, and left the game.

Few expected Florida to make it to the final four of the CWS. The Gators struggled in the regular season and needed to win their final series at Georgia to get the winning streak needed to qualify for an NCAA Tournament appearance. They won regionals and super regionals along the way.

“Any time you lose a game at the end of the year, especially in Omaha, it’s heartbreaking,” Gators outfielder Tyler Shelnut said. “I’m just super proud of my teammates and the rest of this group that went through a lot to get here – I mean, a lot. This whole year has been pretty tough on all of us, so to be here was a huge accomplishment.”

Florida freshman Liam Peterson struggled to start for the third consecutive game, walking four of the first five batters to force the Aggies’ first run and was replaced.

With his team trailing 3-0 in the sixth inning, O’Sullivan called in reliever Brandon Neely with one man on base and one out. Neely had come in after allowing just three runs in a team-best 21 innings in the NCAA tournament, but Sorrell turned a 3-2 pitch into a two-run homer to right to give the team a 5-0 lead.

“I remember coming to these games as a 10-year-old and wanting to be a part of it,” said Sorrell, who grew up three hours from College Station in Highland Village, Texas. “The work isn’t done yet.”