Tennessee wins first baseball national title, beating Texas A&M in MCWS Game 3

Tennessee's Blake Burke and Christian Moore hold the trophy after game three of the NCAA College World Series finals between Tennessee and Texas A&M at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb., on Monday, June 24, 2024.
By Max Olson
Jun 25, 2024

OMAHA, Neb. — Tennessee brought home its first-ever national championship in college baseball on Monday night with a 6-5 win over Texas A&M in a dramatic Men’s College World Series finale at Charles Schwab Stadium.

Dylan Dreiling delivered yet again for Tennessee (60-13) with a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to help the Vols pull away for good from their SEC counterparts and bring home the conference’s fifth consecutive national title.

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“No better team to win for the University of Tennessee than a bunch of guys that were truly the definition of a team,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said.

Dreiling also hit a sacrifice fly in the third inning to give Tennessee the lead and hit home runs in all three CWS finals games. The sophomore left fielder was named CWS Most Outstanding Player.

Texas A&M (53-15) put together two threatening rallies in the eighth and ninth innings. After the Aggies scored two runs in the eighth and got two runners on base with one out, reliever Kirby Connell stepped in and struck out Kaeden Kent and Ryan Targac to escape the jam. The Aggies scored two more in the ninth and had the tying run at the plate, but the Vols once again shut them down, with Aaron Combs striking out the final two hitters of the night for the save.

Tennessee had reached the College World Series seven times in program history, including three trips in the past four seasons under coach Tony Vitello, but hadn’t played for a national title since 1951. The SEC champs were the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament and cruised through the bracket with three consecutive wins in Omaha to reach the finals against Texas A&M.

Texas A&M secured a 9-5 win in Game 1 on Saturday night and held a 1-0 lead through six innings Sunday, but Dreiling sparked a late rally with a two-run homer, Cal Stark slammed another two-run shot in the eighth and the Vols escaped with a 4-1 victory to force the tiebreaker.

“I hope the fans that have turned this into an insane party and an insane event got the series that they wanted and that they deserved,” Vitello said.

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For more on Game 3 of the College World Series, follow The Athletic‘s live blog.

Vols’ offense showed up in the clutch

The most dangerous offense in college baseball did damage when it mattered most Monday night. Tennessee ranked No. 1 nationally in scoring and home runs this season and added to both totals right away in the first inning when consensus All-America slugger Christian Moore slammed a leadoff solo home run to the left-field bullpen in the bottom of the first.

The Vols were able to protect a 3-1 lead for three scoreless innings entering the bottom of the seventh and got a two-out single from third baseman Billy Amick off Texas A&M’s All-America closer Evan Aschenbeck that set up Dreiling’s bomb. Aschenbeck struck out seven Vols during his eight-out save on Saturday night, but the Vols found a way to get to him Monday with five hits and three runs over his three innings of work.

“The difference in the ballgame was timely hits,” Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “Some of their hits were homers and ours weren’t.”

Wild slide for the winning run

As far as championship moments go, they don’t get much better than Hunter Ensley’s wild play at the plate.

The Tennessee junior singled after Dreiling’s homer to extend the bottom of the seventh. When Kavares Tears followed him by stepping in and ripping a hard hit the wall in right-center for a double, Ensley attempted to score all the way from first. An excellent relay throw from shortstop Ali Camarillo to catcher Jackson Appel had him beat, but Ensley didn’t give up. He leaped around Appel, avoided the tag and touched home with his left hand.

“(Teammate) Dean (Curley) was pretty much telling me, ‘Outside, outside, outside,’ and the throw actually ended up carrying the guy to the outside,” Ensley said. “So just natural instinct, trying to make a play right there and get back on the inside part of the bag. I just was able to avoid the tag right there and it ended up being a pretty big run.”

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For Vitello, there was no better play to represent his squad than the one that ended up being the championship-winning run.

“It’s a guy that’s just built with a ton of grit and his teammates follow his leadership,” Vitello said. “It’s a great example of how this group got things done.”

Tennessee finally breaks through

Tennessee bet on a 38-year-old Vitello in giving him his first head coaching gig in 2017. The program he took over had not qualified for the NCAA tournament since 2005.

Vitello led the Vols to the CWS by Year 4 with one of the best seasons in program history in 2021 and earned Coach of the Year honors, but merely getting to Omaha (and going 0-2) wasn’t good enough. They had to fight hard to get better and get back, and they finally put it all together in 2024 with a star-studded squad that achieved a remarkable 60-win season.

Vitello is proud of how far they’ve come but knows that, in an ultra-competitive conference that has secured six of the last seven national titles and is about to add two more contenders in Texas and Oklahoma, it’s going to take much more to stay on top.

“We got all the resources in the world with where we’re at, but it’s a place where we kinda had to build a foundation to catch up with some of these other storied programs,” Vitello said. “I guess Coach (Nick) Saban would argue, but you don’t ever really get to a point where you can look down on everybody. Because the instant you do that, you’re probably going to take an uppercut from one if not multiple places.”

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(Photo: Brianna Paciorka / News Sentinel / USA Today)

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Max Olson

Max Olson covers national college football for The Athletic. He previously covered the Big 12 and recruiting for ESPN.com. Follow Max on Twitter @max_olson