Tennessee completes World Series comeback, defeats Texas A&M to win first national championship

For the first time in program history, The Tennessee Volunteers are national champions.

The Vols were the team to beat all season, and they defeated the Texas A&M Aggies 6-5 in Game 3 of the 2024 Men’s College World Series to claim their university’s first college baseball title.

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It didn’t take long for Tennessee to strike first. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Vols slugger Christian Moore stepped up to the plate against Texas A&M ace Justin Lamkin and sent a towering solo home run over the fence into the left field bleachers.

Texas A&M answered back with a tying run in the third. Graham Grahovac knocked in a run from a base hit to left field to score center fielder Travis Chestnut.

Tennessee didn’t leave the tie on the scoreboard for long, however. Dylan Dreiling scored teammate Blake Burke on a sac-fly in the bottom of the third before a Dean Curley single added another run to push the lead to 3-1.

The Aggies were held to one run through five innings thanks to the handy arm of Vols starter Zander Sechrist. Other than the run in the third inning, he held Texas A&M scoreless through 5.1 innings pitched. While he let up six hits, Sechrist was able to strike out seven Aggies batters while walking just one. He threw 88 pitches during his final outing of the season.

He was relieved by Nate Snead in the sixth inning after Sechrist allowed two Texas A&M runners on base to begin the inning. Snead escaped the inning unscathed, and Tennessee decided to break open the score from there.

In the bottom of the seventh, Dreiling kept his bat hot as he was able to just send the ball over the fence over the outstretched arms of Texas A&M’s outfield and into the bullpen to score two more runs. Kavares Tears almost matched Dreiling’s effort two batters later, but the ball stayed inside the park and fell for an RBI double. All of a sudden, Tennessee boasted a five-run lead heading into the eighth inning.

Texas A&M would not go down without a fight, however. A couple of wild pitches from Tennessee saw Jackson Appel advance to third base with one out. Hayden Schott brought him home on a base hit into the middle gap. Caden Sorrell brought Schott home from first base on another gap-shot double to right field.

This brought out Tennessee closer Kirby Connell with five outs to log before victory and despite a bit of drama, struck out two more Aggies batters to send the game into the ninth inning.

More drama ensued as Texas A&M’s bats awoke in the late stages of the national championship game, but Aaron Combs finished off the Aggies despite their best effort.

Tennessee fans from Omaha all the way back home in Knoxville will be celebrating the historic win deep into the night. As the party begins, the Vols can rest assured knowing they’ve been the best team in baseball since the season began.