Texas A&M Routs Tennessee, Pulls Within One Win Of National Title

Texas A&M is looking for their first ever national championship in baseball in program history.

Texas A&M's Ali Camarillo (2) is tagged out at third base by Tennessee's Billy Amick (11) during a NCAA College World Series game between Tennessee and Texas A&M at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday, June 22, 2024. / Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA

One. More. Win.

That is all the Aggies need to clinch their first-ever baseball national championship after their Game One victory over the Tennessee Volunteers 9-5 Saturday night to stay undefeated in the NCAA tournament.

The Volunteers talked about facing Ryan Prager, knowing the difficulty they would endure facing A&M's ace to start off the series. However, there wasn't much talk about A&M's sizzling-hot offense and the impact that it can have in a game.

Gavin Grahovac wasted no time reminding Tennessee of said impact.

Grahovac launched the third pitch of the ball game into the right field seats to give the Aggies a quick 1-0 lead, the first leadoff home run in the College World Series in over 20 years. An RBI single by Caden Sorrell scored Jackson Appel and gave A&M a 2-0 lead after the first inning. Tennessee would score a run in the second inning to cut the lead to one.

And then came the top of the third inning.

Three hits and one throwing error later, and the Aggies were up 7-1 over the top-ranked team in the nation.

Kaeden Kent would ensure the lead in the seventh inning with a two-run homer to the Aggie bullpen and put the Maroon and White ahead 9-2.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Tennessee began a small rally, with two long balls of their own scoring three Volunteer runs and cutting the Aggie lead to four.

And then, out of the pen comes Evan Aschenbeck, and the rest is history.

Aschenbeck needed 46 pitches to get him through two-and-two-thirds innings of work, but he made every single one count, allowing only two hits and striking out seven to secure the win for A&M.

A home run by Texas A&M's Gavin Grahovac (9) is caught by fans during a NCAA College World Series game between Tennessee and Texas A&M at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday, June 22, 2024. / Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA

Ryan Prager would score the win on the mound for the Aggies. He gave up eight hits and allowed two earned runs, but he did not walk anyone and struck out six in his four innings of work.

With the win, Texas A&M became the first team since the Vanderbilt Commodores in 2015 to win their first nine games in the NCAA tournament.

Texas A&M will look to shut the door and clinch their first national baseball championship as Game Two comes around tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 p.m. CST on ABC.