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OMAHA, Nebraska (KBTX) - Texas A&M and Tennessee baseball square off in the Men’s College World Series Finals with both programs going for their first national championships.

The Aggies and Vols cruised through their brackets in Omaha both going 3-0. Tennessee showed off its powerful lineup putting up a combined 25 runs in those three games. Texas A&M has gotten to this point thanks to a strong pitching staff, only giving up 3 runs so far in Omaha.

While the pitching and offensive lineup is intriguing, the head coaching matchup is just as interesting.

Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello was on Jim Schlossnagle’s staff at TCU as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator from 2011-2013. Vitello’s first head coaching gig was in 2018 when he took over the Vols’ program. This is already his third Men’s College World Series appearance at Tennessee. Now Schlossnagle and Vitello, former colleagues, will face off going for their first national titles.

“He was well known as the hardest working, laser-focused recruiting guy in the country,” Schlossnagle said on Vitello. “He did an awesome job for us at TCU,” Schlossnagle added.

“I felt like things went well,” Vitello explained. “It was nice to go into the SEC, no doubt about it, but knew there was some talent being left behind and would be left behind and miss out on some success. I’ll be danged if Boomer White didn’t get a bunch of hits and prove that theory right. Now he’s an Aggie too,” Vitello added.

“Doesn’t surprise me what Tony’s done,” Schlossnagle said. “And not just with his team with his entire program as well. I’m looking forward to playing against him. That’s what you get in our league and that’s obviously what you get in the World Series,” Schlossnagle added.

Game one between Tennessee and Texas A&M is set for Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

Ryan Prager will get the start on the mound for the Aggies.

Tennessee’s Chris Stamos will start on the mound for the Volunteers.