KSR Gameday: Kentucky vs. Texas A&M in the College World Series

Kentucky is just two wins away from the finals of the College World Series. Tonight, the Bat Cats can make that quest a little easier with a win over Texas A&M.

In case you were under a rock this weekend, Kentucky beat NC State 5-4 on a walk-off home run by Mitchell Daly on Saturday. It was a moment for the ages and came after some tense back-and-forth innings between the Cats and the Wolfpack. When Daly’s home run ball bounced around the Kentucky bullpen in the bottom of the ninth, it felt like destiny was in the air. What a way to cap off the Cats’ first-ever College World Series game.

Tonight, Kentucky faces Texas A&M, which beat Florida late Saturday night to move to the winners’ bracket. Although both teams are in the SEC, it’s their first meeting this season. Last season, the Aggies won two of three games against the Cats in College Station. This is Texas A&M’s eighth College World Series appearance, but the Aggies have yet to win it all. Led by two-time National Coach of the Year Jim Schlossnagle, they’ll be hungry for a dub tonight.

First pitch is set for 6 p.m. CT, 7 p.m. ET and the game will air on ESPN. First, NC State and Florida square off in the losers’ bracket at 1 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT, also on ESPN. If Kentucky wins tonight, they’ll advance to Game 3 on Wednesday. If they lose, they’ll head to the losers’ bracket and play the winner of NC State and Florida on Tuesday for the chance to face Texas A&M on Wednesday.

Here’s the latest bracket with Sunday’s results. Tennessee beat North Carolina 6-1 and Florida State beat Virginia 7-3. The Vols will face the winner of the ‘Noles and the Tar Heels on Wednesday.

How to Watch, Listen

No. 2 Kentucky (46-14) vs No. 3 Texas A&M (50-13)
7:00 p.m. ET | Monday, June 17 | Charles Schwab Field

• TV: ESPN (Karl Ravech, Eduardo Perez, Kyle Peterson, Kris Budden)
• Streaming: Watch ESPN
• Home Radio: UK Sports Network – 630 WLAP, iHeart Radio (Darren Headrick, Keith Madison)
• Online Radio: iHeart
• Live Stats: StatBroadcast
• Game Thread: KSBoard

We’ve had so much baseball coverage on the site this weekend that it’s almost impossible to keep up. Click here for a list of all our stories, or just pick the one you like best from the list below:

• Heroic Big Blue Bombs help Kentucky claim first College World Series win
• Kentucky’s bullpen should be near 100 percent in Game 2 of College World Series
• Ryan Nicholson continues to come up big for Kentucky
• WATCH: Nick Mingione, Kentucky players discuss walk-off College World Series win
• Kentucky’s winning mentality never wavered in comeback win
• ‘Our fans were amazing’: Big Blue Nation helped get Kentucky over the hump in Omaha
• Kentucky Baseball buy-in is at an all-time high

We’ve got even more baseball chatter on KSBoard, which reached a fever pitch on Saturday afternoon and hasn’t stopped rolling.

Join KSR Plus! With a KSR Plus membership, you get access to bonus content and KSBoard, KSR’s message board, to chat with fellow Cats fans and get exclusive scoop.

The Odds

Kentucky may be the No. 2 seed to Texas A&M’s No. 3, but Vegas favors the Aggies. Texas A&M is the favorite on FanDuel, at -136 on the moneyline. The total is set at 9.5 runs, with the Aggies a 1.5-run favorite. You can get Kentucky to win at +106, a wager I’ll be considering once I wrap up this post.

Tennessee is still the favorite to win it all, at +105, followed by Texas A&M (+240) and Kentucky (+340). From there, it’s a pretty huge gap to the rest of the pack.

• Tennessee: +105
• Texas A&M: +240
• Kentucky: +340
• North Carolina: +1900
• Florida State: +1900
• Florida: +3300

Don’t miss the content on the KSR YouTube Channel

KSR’s baseball beat writer Daniel Hager and videographer Steven Peake are in Omaha to capture all the action. You’ve likely read lots of Daniel’s work on the site, but don’t miss their excellent video content on the KSR YouTube Channel, which is also where you’ll find all of Kentucky Baseball’s postgame press conferences.

Since Daniel and Steven arrived on Friday night, they’ve been talking about the Cats and to Kentucky fans about an incredible Omaha debut. On Saturday, they recapped Kentucky’s thrilling win in a Rapid Reaction, and on Sunday, Daniel and Jonathon Bruner went a bit deeper on a new episode of “Bat Cat Beat.”

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.

KSR’s trip to Omaha for the College World Series is presented by Summit Insurance Group, a veteran-owned, family-operated business. We want to introduce you to Steve Terrell, who is here to help and give you a tip.

Before signing any insurance policy, be sure to read the terms and conditions. Our practice goes much further than just writing your insurance policy. We want to make sure that in the event you are in an accident, and someone is injured, you have adequate coverage to cover any expenses related to the loss. Do you have enough money to pay for your medical bills? Do you have enough money to replace your vehicle? Our job as insurance advisors is to make sure that you do! We want to protect not only your vehicles but your home as well. We also offer business, life, Medicare supplements, and more. Give us a call at (859) 479-1234 for more tips!

CWS Shot Challenge update

Go away, Tennessee. The Volunteers’ lead in the Rocco’s Shot Challenge grew even bigger on Sunday. As of last night, the Vols had purchased 8,556 jello shots, almost double the amount of Texas A&M (4,737) and Kentucky (4,509) fans. Time for Blue to do some serious pregaming.

Two Football Commitments

If you were offline on Father’s Day or are just now getting to your computer this morning, you may have missed some football commitments. On Sunday, 3-star wide receiver Ja’Kayden Ferguson committed to Kentucky, picking the Cats over Houston, LSU, and Texas Tech, among others. This morning, 3-star cornerback Andrew Purcell did the same, picking Kentucky over Georgia, Miami (FL), and Tennessee. Both were in town this weekend for official visits.

Ferguson is the No. 627 overall prospect in the On3 Industry Ranking, No. 92 among wide receivers, with Purcell coming in at No. 567 overall, No. 57 among cornerbacks. They are the eighth and ninth members of Kentucky’s 2025 class, joining four-star RB Marquise Davis, four-star S Martels Carter, four-star WR Quintin Simmons, four-star OT Darrin Strey, three-star QBs Stone Saunders and Brennen Ward, and three-star OL Tucker Kattus.

If all of those rankings are just numbers to you, let’s try a visual. Ferguson can do stuff like this:

pic.twitter.com/BymkzXAAYj

— Football 🏈 (@footbaIl2) June 8, 2024

Needless to say, a big recruiting weekend for the program is paying off. Will the dice stay hot? Stay tuned.

Men’s Basketball workouts begin

Baseball and football recruiting aren’t the only things happening in the world of UK sports. With all of the Wildcats now in town, the men’s basketball team begins summer workouts today. For the next eight weeks, the team can practice for four hours per week with an additional four hours per week for weight training, etc. Practice reports are coming (which is another reason why you should join KSR Plus!).

This weekend, the team got to meet the BBN properly at the Father/Son and Father/Daughter Camps on campus and at the Club Blue New Era NIL event at the Kentucky Horse Park. By all accounts, all three events were huge successes. Jack Pilgrim was at the camp and New Era event on Saturday and made the rounds talking to coaches and players. Catch up on his coverage below.

• If not the NBA, Jaxson Robinson knew it’d be Kentucky from day one: “It’s surreal.”
• Kerr Kriisa continues to make Luka Doncic enemy No. 1
• Andrew Carr says Brandon Garrison is a player ‘flying under the radar’ for Kentucky

On Sunday, the Pope girls took center stage at the program’s Father/Daughter Camp, which looked like an absolute blast.

Father-Daughter Camp with @CoachMarkPope and family is a vibe 🪩#GoBigBlue pic.twitter.com/BGnjwI1K0X

— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) June 16, 2024

NBA Finals Game 5

We’ll be preoccupied with baseball tonight, but Game Five of the NBA Finals tips off at 8:30 p.m. on ABC. Dallas made a statement in Game Four on Friday night, beating Boston 122-84 to stay alive in the series, which the Celtics lead 3-1. Tonight, the Mavs will try to do the same, albeit back in TD Garden.

Boston is a 6.5-point favorite. Will they wrap it up tonight or will the series move back to Dallas later this week? As mentioned, I’ll be too busy cheering on the Bat Cats to watch it live, but will flip over at some point to see if PJ Washington and the Mavs can keep the series going.

Merry Monday with Myron Medcalf

It’s another Monday after a Kentucky Baseball postseason win, which means Myron Medcalf is ready to hop on the mic to break it down. Ryan Lemond and Shannon the Dude will join Myron on a Merry Monday morning to discuss Kentucky’s big win, tonight’s game, and whether or not Ryan and Shannon need to start making plans for the finals in Omaha this weekend.

The fun starts one hour from now on WKRD or our many affiliates across the state or right now on the KSR Preshow with Shannon and Billy.