OMAHA, Neb. — Bad defensive and an early Texas A&M offensive onslaught propelled the Aggies to a 9-5 victory over Tennessee in game one of the College World Series finals on Saturday night.
Here’s how things went sideways for Tennessee in game one of the College World Series finals against Texas A&M.
Familiar First Inning Woes
Texas A&M scored two runs in the top of the first inning to take an early lead over the Vols, and the woes were ones that have become common for Tennessee this postseason.
For the third time in four NCAA Tournament starts, Chris Stamos failed to make it out of the first inning for Tennessee. Aggies’ leadoff man Gavin Grahovac opened the scoring by depositing an 0-2 outside fastball into the right field bleachers for a solo homer.
Jackson Appel doubled down the left field line to give Texas A&M a one-out baserunner and then the second first inning miscue happened.
Dean Curley couldn’t corral a chopper over Stamos’ head, earning him a fielding error. It was Tennessee’s third first inning error in its four College World Series games. The defensive issues weren’t done at that point as Tennessee committed three errors in the game leading to two unearned runs.
That’s when AJ Causey relieves Stamos and after striking out Ted Burton for out number one, Caden Sorrell drove in an unearned run with a single up the middle.
Causey did a good job of limiting the damage, stranding a pair in-scoring position with a strikeout. Still, it was a less than ideal start for Tennessee.
More AJ Causey Struggles
The first three innings of the game followed a very similar flow to the Florida State game to open up the College World Series. A poor third inning that included AJ Causey struggles and bad defense behind him led to a five-run inning.
Texas A&M did most of its damage with two strikes. Both Hayden Schott and Caden Sorrell had RBI singles on 0-2 pitches. The most costly mistake game on a Ali Camarillo grounder to third base that Billy Amick threw well off line and into right field.
Causey was better than he was against Florida State, getting through the fourth inning without allowing anymore damage. But still, it was not the Causey that we’ve seen for most of the season. The one that was so critical in getting Tennessee to Omaha.
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Tennessee’s Offense Makes Ryan Prager Work
Texas A&M ace Ryan Prager was solid against Tennessee. The left-handed strike thrower threw first pitch strikes against 17 of the Tennessee batters he faced and was doing what makes him effective all season.
And the Vols didn’t have overwhelming success, totaling two runs in four innings pitched. But the four innings pitched was a worthwhile number. With its No. 2 starting pitcher injured, Texas A&M is leaning on fewer pitchers to get the job done for them. Tennessee making them go to the bullpen earlier than expected could prove important the rest of the weekend.
Tennessee was able to do it by working competitive at-bats. Blake Burke, Dylan Dreiling, Hunter Ensley and Curley all had two hits off of Prager while no other Vol tallied one.
The big caveat here is that Prager only threw 81 pitches so he could turn around and pitch on Monday if the series goes three games. Tennessee didn’t light Prager up but they did enough off of him to win. Its issues were elsewhere.
Runners In-Scoring Position Issues
Tennessee struggled with runner in-scoring position against the Aggies, hitting twp-of-13. The biggest missed opportunity came after running Prager from the game in the fifth inning.
The Vols had runners on first and second with no one out before Dreiling and Ensley struck out and Tears grounded out to end the inning. Besides those at-bats, Dreiling and Ensley combined to hit seven-for-eight with a home run each.
At that point, Tennessee trailed 7-2 and a few runs would have completely changed the dynamic of the game but the Vols couldn’t provide the big hit to spark a run.
Tennessee also put runners on the corners with one-out in the ninth inning but back-to-back strikeouts kept the Vols off the scoreboard.
Box Score
Up Next
Tennessee is on the brink of elimination. They’ll look to extend its season by one day when it faces Texas A&M at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon. ABC is broadcasting the game.
