Tennessee baseball has been building towards this weekend for seven years. Tony Vitello’s program is playing for the National Championship.
Standing in its way is conference foe Texas A&M who is also looking for its first National Championship in program history.
Here’s the RTI staff’s predictions for the best of three championship series against Texas A&M.
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Jack Foster
It’s not hard to believe Tennessee is playing for a National Championship given the fact it’s been the best team in the nation all year.
But still, Tennessee is competing for a National Championship in a major men’s sport for the first time since 1998. So in that case, it feels pretty surreal.
There’s no reason to not be confident in Tennessee this weekend. The Vols have won in different ways in Omaha, whether it’s coming back with a four-run ninth inning rally or using great pitching to easily handle the two best ACC teams this year.
Texas A&M is a great team. Granted, the Aggies are banged up, but there’s a reason they haven’t lost yet in the NCAA Tournament.
I’m going Tennessee. This offense is generational. Christian Moore is a generational hitter. Dylan Dreiling and Hunter Ensley are two of the most clutch Tennessee baseball players in recent memory. Blake Burke’s consistency is unrivaled.
And the pitching staff? It could underwhelm. That would be why Tennessee loses this weekend. But from what Nate Snead, Kirby Connell, Drew Beam and Zander Sechrist have shown so far in Omaha, they’re dialed. And I expect AJ Causey and Aaron Combs to have bounce back efforts, too.
It won’t come easy, but this thing doesn’t make it to Monday. Vols in two.
Prediction: Tennessee in two games
Ryan Schumpert
Here we are at the end of the line. Tennessee has one more weekend series left in its 2024 campaign. They’ll face off against one of just the three SEC teams that they didn’t play in a three-game series during the regular season.
I am confident that Tennessee is the better team. Maybe not by a wide margin, though Texas A&M’s injuries have made the gap a little bit bigger. But the important caveat is that this is baseball. Being the better team in football mat guarantee victory eight or nine times out of 10. Not in this sport.
My initial instinct was to pick Tennessee to win in two games. I’ve spent so much time watching this team and they’ve been so good for so long that I have little reason to doubt them now. But the Aggies have been good too. They haven’t dropped a game since they lost to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament on May 23.
Two thoughts on the overall outlook of the series that mesh well together. Texas A&M must win the opener with Ryan Prager on the mound. If they don’t do that, they’re not winning this series. And if this goes to game three, it’s hard not to like Tennessee with Zander Sechrist on the mound.
That’s my prediction. This thing gets to three games, Sechrist turns in one last strong performance and then jokes about how it felt like another midweek game at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Prediction: Tennessee in three games
