Texas Keeps College World Series Hopes Alive With 8-4 Win Over Tennessee

The Texas Longhorns kept their College World Series hopes alive on Tuesday afternoon by taking down the Tennessee Volunteers

Matt Galatzan | Jun 22, 2021

Coming off of a tough loss to Mississippi State in their first game of the College World Series, Texas needed a win over the Tennessee Volunteers on Tuesday afternoon in order to stay alive in Omaha.

Fortunately, the bats came alive against Tennessee's pitching with the Longhorns coasting to an 8-4 win at TD Ameritrade Park.

Tennessee (50-17) was able to jump out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning, but the Longhorns would quickly rebound in the bottom half of the second when outfielder Eric Kennedy blasted a three-run home run to right field, scoring Mitchell Daly and Ivan Melendez, and put Texas up 3-2.

Texas got extended that lead even further in the third when Mike Antico got across the plate on a Cam Williams ground out, putting the Longhorns up 4-2.

Tennessee would manage to tie the game in the fourth, pushing across two runs, but Texas would quickly regain the momentum with a Silas Ardoin two-RBI single to right-center field, and a Cam Williams RBI single to left-center field, putting the Horns on top for good at 7-4.

From there, the Longhorns would never relinquish control of the game, with newly minted Freshman All-American Tanner Witt shutting down the Volunteers' lineup, giving up just three hits over 5.2 innings in relief of starter Tristan Stevens.

Texas managed to add even more run support to their after Witt entered the fray as well, however, Eric Kennedy scored on a wild pitch to make the score 8-4 in the sixth inning.

Following the win, David Pierce's 48-16 Longhorns will take the field once again on Thursday, where they will face the loser of Tuesday night's matchup between Mississippi State and Virginia for the right to advance in the tournament.

CONTINUE READING: Texas Longhorns WR Jake Smith Enters Transfer Portal

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Published Jun 22, 2021

MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.