Seattle Mariners Had Multiple Connections to College World Series Final
On Monday night, the University of Tennessee captured its first-ever College World Series championship, beating Texas A&M in Game 3 of the championship series.
But did you know that the Seattle Mariners had multiple connections to the College World Series? First, there's the fact that Cal Raleigh played in the College World for Florida State, that Ryne Stanek played in it for Arkansas, that Trent Thornton pitched there for North Carolina and that Ryan Bliss played there for Auburn.
And with regards to the final, Bryce Miller was a former pitcher at Texas A&M and Raleigh's dad was the former head coach at the University of Tennessee.
Miller pitched in 54 games for Texas A&M in his career, going 8-6 with a 4.07 ERA. He made 10 starts as a senior in College Station and was drafted by the M's in the fourth round of the 2021 draft. He made his major league debut in 2023 and is a critical part of the M's rotation right now.
Raleigh's father, Todd, spent four seasons as the head coach at Tennessee from 2007-2011 after a successful eight year run at Western Carolina University. he led the Volunteers to a 30- win season in 2010. He had also served as a D1 assistant at Western Carolina, James Madison and the University of Vermont.
Cal Raleigh played his college ball at the aforementioned Florida State and was drafted by the Mariners in the third round of the 2018 draft. He's become one of the most powerful hitting catchers in all of baseball, hitting 30 homers a season ago.
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