Dylan Dreiling and Cal Stark smacked two-run home runs as top-seeded Tennessee knocked off No. 3 Texas A&M 4-1 on Sunday afternoon in Omaha, Neb., to even the Men’s College World Series at one win apiece.
Aaron Combs (3-1) struck out five and allowed three hits and two walks over four-plus scoreless innings of relief for the Volunteers (59-13). Nate Snead entered with two on in the ninth and retired three straight batters for his sixth save.
Jace LaViolette homered and reached base four times (two hits, two walks) for Texas A&M (53-14), which dropped to 9-1 in the postseason.
The deciding game of the best-of-three series between the two SEC schools is Monday night. The Volunteers will try to become the first No. 1 seed to win the title since Miami in 1999.
“It was an SEC war, or just a postseason war,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said after his squad bounced back from Saturday’s 9-5 loss. “And in that situation, if you had your druthers, you’d like to have the last at-bat because you know the ninth inning is going to be full of drama. But I think our kids kept their composure in that ninth inning.”
Tennessee trailed 1-0 after six innings before getting two-run blasts in each of the next two innings.
In the seventh, Christian Moore led off with a walk before Texas A&M’s Kaiden Wilson (0-2) retired the next two batters. Dreiling came up and belted a go-ahead, two-run homer to right for his second blast in two days and 22nd of the season.
The Volunteers tacked on in the eighth. Dean Curley delivered his second single of the game with one out, and Stark came up with two outs against Wilson and belted a shot over the wall in left. It was his 11th homer of the season.
Stark was 0-for-16 with nine strikeouts in the MCWS before delivering the big blow.
“Every kid dreams about playing at this stage,” Stark said. “Being able to do that late in the game like that — something I’ll never forget.”
The Aggies threatened with two outs in the eighth as LaViolette singled and Jackson Appel walked. Combs then retired Hayden Schott on a fly to left to end the inning.
Ted Burton led off the Texas A&M ninth inning with a single to left to end Combs’ stint. Kirby Connell entered and gave up a single to left to Caden Sorrell before Tennessee called on Snead.
Ali Camarillo reached on a fielder’s chose to put runners on the corners before Kaeden Kent flied out to shallow left and pinch hitter Ryan Targac flied out to right to end it.
“Great ballgame. The difference in the game was two two-out homers,” Aggies coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “… We get to play the last college baseball game of the season, and that’s awesome.”
LaViolette was the second Texas A&M batter to come to the plate in the bottom of the first inning, and he homered to right off Tennessee’s Drew Beam. It was his 29th blast of the season.
LaViolette expects his squad to bounce back Monday in a game that will mark the first national title for the winning team and tons of heartbreak for the losing side.
“Look what we’ve done all season,” LaViolette said. “There are receipts for it all. I think the whole team knows what we have to do tomorrow, knows what we have to do get prepared to win tomorrow. I have full confidence in this team.”
–Field Level Media
