IBTIT: Tennessee Vols vs. Texas A&M Aggies in the College World Series Finals Preview

It’s National Championship Time in Tennessee

Recently: Tennessee swept their half of the bracket in Omaha, beating Florida State in dramatic fashion Friday before relatively cruising in games against North Carolina Sunday and then FSU again Wednesday.

Likewise, A&M was unbeaten in their side of the bracket, beating Florida, Kentucky, and Florida again to advance to the weekend championship series.

Previously on Vols in the College World Series Finals: The only other time Tennessee baseball has been this close to a national championship was in 1951, when the Vols were one of eight teams invited to Omaha for the national tournament. UT compiled a 16-1 record in the regular season and finished three games ahead of Alabama in the SEC standings, but dropped their first game in Omaha to Utah. The Vols fought their way out of the losers’ bracket (there was no 4/2 split then that the modern tournament has) by beating Princeton, Springfield, USC, and a return game against the Utes (known back then as the Redskins). Tennessee held a 2-0 lead against Oklahoma before surrendering runs in the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings, ultimately falling 2-3. The Vols were led by utility player and pitcher Sid Hatfield, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player and would go on to coach UT’s golf team from 1968-76, as well as Bert Rechichar and Herky Payne, who would star on General Robert Neyland’s 1951 National Championship-winning football team. Neyland was in Omaha to throw out the first pitch for one of Tennessee’s games:

You might know that Neyland played ball at Texas A&M before his appointment to West Point. But you might not know that it was Charles Moran, a Tennessee football alum, that coached Neyland at A&M and later recommended Neyland for the head coaching position at UT. There’s a whole thread on X that goes into detail:

So while the Aggies and Vols played only once this season (a 7-4 UT win in Hoover) and Tennessee has just a 10-11 all-time record against TAMU, there are elements of history that intrinsically connect the two schools.

Preview Graphic:

Have fun trying to piece together A&M’s pitching rotation. For most of the SEC season, Aggie skipper Jim Schlossnagle stuck to a rotation of Ryan Prager/Justin Lamkin/Tanner Jones. But over the last six weeks or so, Lamkin and Jones gave way to Brad Rudis and Shane Sdao, with Jones having just one start this postseason, the opening regional game against Grambling. Conversely Lamkin, who had not started since a May 11 game at Ole Miss, started both of the Aggies’ games against Florida in Omaha, while Rudis and Sdao have yet to take the hill in Charles Schwab Stadium. So while I’m pretty confident Prager—who Tennessee beat in the SEC tournament—starts game 1, seeing Rudis/Sdao follow up is just a guess. Regardless of whatever by-committee starting rotation A&M uses, they will have options coming out of the bullpen, and the Aggies will be looking to hand the ball off to Evan Aschenbeck to close with his SEC-best 10 saves on the year.

It’s probably not surprising then that these were the two pitching staffs with the best ERAs coming into Omaha, and the 3rd (TAMU) and 6th (UT) best ERAs in America. There’s a paper-thin margin between these teams when it comes to ERA, strikeout/walk ratio, strikeouts per 9, WHIP, or just about any other metric you’d want to compare. It’s likely UT will stick with Chris Stamos opening for AJ Causey in game 1, with Drew Beam on the bump for game 2. The question will be, should a game 3 become necessary, how much Zander Sechrist could potentially give before the Tennessee bullpen would be called on to finish the job. Remember in the SEC tournament we saw unexpected contributions from the UT pen, and the Vols came through in a high pressure situation. It might have just been preparation for such a time as this.

Offensively, both teams are excellent as well. With Blake Burke finally getting HR no. 20, the Vols now have five players with 20+ homers, a NCAA first. But A&M also has three 20 HR men (although one of them, Braden Montgomery, had season-ending surgery last week) and another two in double digits. With as much as these teams mirror each other, it’s no surprise that the probability basically amounts to a coin flip:

The only guarantees going into the weekend are 1) a team that has never won a CWS title will win one and 2) the two fanbases of these teams are in for the 18 to 27 (or more) most stressful innings of baseball of our lives. I’d remind you what Tony Vitello said after the super regionals about UT playing with house money. Regardless of how the weekend goes, it’s been a helluva ride this season.

But WGWTFA.