OMAHA, Neb.—Tennessee’s prodigious home run prowess arrived too late in Game 1 of the College World Series finals.
It showed up just in time in Game 2.
Tennessee’s Dylan Dreiling hit the go-ahead homer in the seventh inning, Cal Stark went deep in the eighth, and after Nate Snead turned back a Texas A&M scoring threat in the bottom of the ninth, the Volunteers had forced a deciding third game with a 4–1 victory on Sunday.
One of the teams will win its first national title in baseball and become the fifth straight College World Series champion from the Southeastern Conference when they meet again Monday night.
“I felt we were more true to who we were today in pregame, in the dugout, during the game,” Tennessee Coach Tony Vitello said. “It’s easy to say that because we end up doing OK on the scoreboard. But I’d rather go into battle with that group the way they showed up today, and hope they do the same tomorrow.”
Tennessee (59–13) is trying to become the first No. 1 national seed to win the championship since Miami in 1999. The Vols were down seven runs when Dreiling and Hunter Ensley hit back-to-back homers in the seventh inning of a 9–5 loss on Saturday.
They trailed 1–0 in the seventh Sunday when Dreiling sent Kaiden Wilson’s 1–1 pitch 390 feet into the right-field seats to give the Vols a much-needed jolt after they had twice left the bases loaded and managed just four hits through six innings.
The Vols had been 2 for 20 with runners in scoring position over the first two games of the finals when Dreiling connected. Tennessee went up three runs when Stark, its No. 9 batter, homered in the eighth. He had been 0 for 16 with nine strikeouts in the College World Series before he launched a pitch from Wilson over the left-field bullpen.
“We always know we’re one inning away,” Stark said. “We keep stacking quality at-bats together and good things will end up happening. The kid to my right [Dreiling] put a good swing on the ball and gave us a lot of momentum going late into the game.”
Snead, who earned his sixth save, was called on after the Aggies’ first two batters singled in the bottom of the ninth. He got a groundout and flyout before Kavares Tears went to the warning track to catch pinch-hitter Ryan Targac’s fly ball that stayed in the park with the help of the wind blowing in.
This will be the fifth College World finals since 2018, and second straight, to go three games.
“To think you’re going to roll right through it in two games would be ... That would have been nice,” Aggies Coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “We get to play the last college baseball game of the season, and that’s awesome.”
The Vols haven’t dropped consecutive games since March 16-17 at Alabama.
Jace LaViolette’s team-leading 29th homer of the season, 50th of his career, and first of the College World Series put the Aggies up 1–0 in the first inning. It also was the first RBI in five games for LaViolette, who has been playing on a sore right hamstring.
“In the moment, that felt great,” LaViolette said. “Would it have felt a lot better if we had won? It’s baseball. There’s ebb and flows. You try not to ride the highs and lows, and I feel I’ve been riding the low a little too much.”
The Aggies had only one runner reach second base against Drew Beam before Aaron Combs (3–1) took over with no outs in the fifth. Combs worked out of trouble in the sixth and left with one out in the ninth.
Schlossnagle, having won Saturday, decided to make it a bullpen day in order to save Justin Lamkin for a possible Game 3. Lampkin has thrown eight shutout innings over two College World Series starts.
Zane Badmaev, who hadn’t started since he was at then-Division II Tarleton State in 2020, did his part as an opener. He was lifted for Chris Cortez after giving up a single leading off the second inning. Cortez left in the sixth after a four-pitch walk. He blamed dehydration.
Wilson (0–2) came on and coaxed Stark to hit into an inning-ending double play but couldn’t hold off the nation’s top home run-hitting team in the seventh and eighth.
Dreiling’s homer was his 22nd of the season and second of the College World Series. Stark went deep for the 11th time. Tennessee has 182 homers for the year, six behind the 1997 Louisiana State team’s NCAA record of 188.
