By ERIC OLSON AP Sports Writer
OMAHA, Neb. — Tennessee fell flat in its two previous College World Series appearances and in between there was the crushing loss in NCAA super regionals as the No. 1 national seed.
All that has led to this year’s Volunteers putting themselves in position to play for the program’s first national title beginning Saturday.
Tennessee is heading to the CWS finals for the first time in the modern era after it knocked out Florida State with a 7-2 victory on Wednesday to win its bracket.
Zander Sechrist held the Seminoles (49-17) scoreless for six innings and the Volunteers struck for four early runs to become the first No. 1 national seed since 2009 to advance to the best-of-three finals.
“We always say before something happens, something happens,” Vols coach Tony Vitello said. “There’s been a lot of build-up into the successes we’ve had this year and the failures, too, to be honest with you. And it’s been fun to be a part of.”
Tennessee’s win assured an all-SEC finals for the second straight year and the third time in four. The Volunteers (58-12) will face Texas A&M, which defeated Florida, 6-0.
The Southeastern Conference will have at least one team in the finals for the 15th time in 16 years. Seven SEC teams have made it since 2009. The fact Tennessee hadn’t been among them had become more frustrating on Rocky Top in recent years. The Vols’ 209 victories and 559 home runs since the start of the 2021 season are the most of any Division I program, after all.
Tennessee made it to a one-game final in its first CWS appearance in 1951, losing to Oklahoma, 3-2. In those days, there were no preliminary rounds in the NCAA Tournament; teams were selected for the CWS based on regular-season performance.
The Vols broke through under Vitello after winning a combined one of five games in trips to Omaha in 2021 and 2023. In 2022, they lost a three-game super regional to Notre Dame team at home.
“That’s a good team in the other dugout, clearly,” said second-year FSU coach Link Jarrett, who coached the Notre Dame team that knocked out the Vols two years ago. “Well-constructed, variety of arms, physical offensively, dynamic, athletic. They made some exceptional plays. You could basically go around the diamond and make note of the exceptional plays they made.”
FSU freshman John Abraham (5-2) was making his first start since April 9 and third of the season. He struggled with his control and faced only five batters before getting pulled with one out.
Tennessee was ahead 4-0 when Burke singled in a run in the second and he finished the scoring in the ninth when he hit his 20th home run of the season. That made the Vols the first team in Division I history to have five players with at least 20 homers. They have a nation-leading 178, nine behind the Division I record set by LSU in 1997.
Burke got a couple fastballs, a changeup and a surprise slider from Conner Whittaker.
“It was nasty, a back-foot slider. I told him, ‘Good pitch,’” Burke said. “I did that just so I could get it again because I knew it was coming. I fouled a fastball off and I kind of knew that pitch was coming. I was prepared for it. I got my barrel on it.”
Sechrist (5-1) came into the game 3-0 in his previous four starts with an 0.78 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 23 innings. His scoreless streak in the NCAA Tournament ended at 17⅓ innings when Daniel Cantu and Alex Lodise hit back-to-back homers in the seventh.
In a CWS marked by jaw-dropping defensive plays, Tennessee’s Kavares Tears made one equal to teammate Hunter Ensley’s against North Carolina on Sunday.
Tears chased down Marco Dinges’ deep drive to right center to end the first inning, catching the ball while crashing into the wall, his sunglasses and hat flying off.
Tears, the Vols’ regular right fielder, made his first start in center since April 23 because Ensley suffered a lower-body injury when he caught Antony Donofrio’s deep fly to center just before crashing into the wall. Ensley was the designated hitter against the Seminoles. and went 1 for 4.
“K.T.’s catch set the tone, especially in the first inning,” Sechrist said. “I know our offense scored in the top of the first, but he set the tone right there.”
Texas A&M 6, Florida 0: Texas A&M is going to play for a national championship in baseball for the first time in the program’s 130-year history.
Jim Schlossnagle had a breakthrough, too. The 53-year-old coach has brought seven teams to the CWS since 2010 – five when he was at TCU and two in his first three seasons at Texas A&M – and never made it to the finals until now.
“I’m tired of leaving before the championship, so personally it’s awesome, it’s fun to get to be a part of,” he said after his Aggies knocked Florida out with a 6-0 bracket-clinching win Wednesday night. “Excited to play an awesome Tennessee team, one of the best college teams that I’ve – I mean, they really have a great team.”
Justin Lamkin gave Texas A&M (52-13) a second straight sensational start against the Gators and Caden Sorrell homered to break open the game.
Hours after Florida banged out 14 hits and scored its third-most runs this season in a 15-4 win over Kentucky, the Gators (36-30) managed just four hits and were shut out for the first time in 145 games.
The last team to blank the Gators? Texas A&M, 10-0 in the 2022 SEC Tournament.
“It’s like you’re going full speed ahead, and you win the game this morning, and you go back to the hotel, everybody’s in a good mood, we’re feeling really good about tonight, and it just didn’t go our way,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “As simple as that, and Texas A&M deserves to move on.”
Schlossnagle, who lost starter Shane Sdao to an arm injury in the super regionals, turned to Lamkin for a second matchup with the Gators in Omaha. Lamkin was sharp in a 42-pitch, three-inning outing on Saturday. He was even better Wednesday, holding the Gators scoreless through five innings and striking out nine.
“I think the big part of it is just having confidence in myself and knowing I can go out there and I can compete and play at this level,” Lamkin said. “And I think just getting ahead of hitters and just having true confidence in all my pitches really helped me out.”
There was a scary moment in the top of the ninth when Florida right fielder Ashton Wilson struck his head on a padded post on the fence separating the bullpen and field as he tried to catch Ali Camarillo’s drive that went for a triple. Wilson appeared woozy, was tended to by an athletic trainer and coach Kevin O’Sullivan and came out of the game.
Few expected Florida to make it to the final four of the CWS. The Gators struggled in the regular season and had to win their last series, at Georgia, to achieve the winning record necessary to be eligible for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid. They won regionals and super regionals on the road to get here.
“Any time you lose a game to end the year, especially in Omaha, it’s going to be heartbreaking,” Gators outfielder Tyler Shelnut said. “I’m just super proud of my teammates and the rest of this group who pushed through a lot to get here – I mean, a lot. This whole year was pretty hard on all of us. So being here was a huge accomplishment.”
Florida freshman Liam Peterson struggled for a third straight start. He walked four of the first five batters to force in the Aggies’ first run and was lifted.
With his team down 3-0 in the sixth, O’Sullivan called for reliever Brandon Neely with a man on base and one out. Neely had entered having allowed just three runs in a team-high 21 innings in the NCAA Tournament, but Sorrell turned on a 3-and-2 pitch for a two-run homer to right and a 5-0 lead.
“I remember coming to these games when I was 10 years old and wanting to be part of this,” said Sorrell, who grew up three hours from College Station in Highland Village, Texas. “The job’s not finished yet.”
Florida 15, Kentucky 4: Brody Donay hit a grand slam for the first of his two homers, Jac Caglianone became Florida’s all-time home run leader and the Gators rode a seven-run first inning to a 15-4 victory over Kentucky in an elimination game earlier Wednesday.
The game had been scheduled for Tuesday night but was postponed because of rain.
The victory over Kentucky was extra satisfying for the Gators because they lost a weekend series at home to the Wildcats a month ago.
“We had to get some sort of revenge, I guess,” Caglianone said. “No better opportunity than to do it on this stage. All the guys were pretty pumped up about it.”
Kentucky (46-16) went 1-2 in its first CWS appearance after giving up the most runs since it lost to LSU, 16-6, on April 13, 2023.
“This is not how you want to end your season, but this is where you want to end your season,” Kentucky coach Nick Mingione said. “Just so proud of our group of men. They’re unbelievable in every sense of the word. They made history. This hurts. It hurts a lot because this team is fully capable of accomplishing our goal of being national champions. That wasn’t the case this year. That’s not what the Lord planned.”
The Gators’ bats didn’t require a wakeup call for the 10 a.m. game. They banged out 15 hits and finished with their third-highest run total of the season.
They rocked Kentucky starter Dominic Niman a second straight time while putting up seven runs in the first. Niman faced six batters in his one-third of an inning. He allowed three hits and was charged with five runs. Niman gave up six runs in four innings in a 10-1 loss to the Gators last month.
Niman (8-5) was gone by the time Donay came up with the bases loaded in the first. Dale Thomas greeted reliever Cameron O’Brien with a base hit before Donay hit his first pitch to him out to right, barely clearing the fence with the aid of a light north wind on a 66-degree morning. The wind had not blown out at Charles Schwab Field the first five days of the CWS.
Donay’s second homer was monstrous, a 414-footer that exited his bat at 118 mph and landed in the last row of the left field bleachers. The homers were the 13th and 14th of the year for the No. 8 batter in the order, and his five RBIs were a career high.
Pierce Coppola (1-4), who came back in April following back and shoulder injuries that caused him to miss the 2023 season, gave the Gators exactly what they needed in his career-long five innings. The left-hander struck out nine, and the Gators had a five-run lead when his day ended.
“I thought this was the best Pierce had thrown all year long,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “He was crisp. Him not throwing in (super regionals) probably helped.”
The Gators, who entered the game batting .190 in Omaha, gave their batting order a makeover with four players in new spots.
“Sometimes you make lineup changes and they work out and sometimes they don’t,” O’Sullivan said. “We were at the point we had to do something because the first two games we weren’t very productive.”
Most notably, O’Sullivan had Caglianone bat leadoff for the first time in his career. Caglianone, projected to be among the first players taken in the amateur draft, was intentionally walked six times in the regular-season series with the Wildcats.
Kentucky again had no answer for Caglianone. The .400 hitter singled, hit his 35th homer of the season and 75th of his career to pass Matt LaPorta on the school career chart. Caglianone was walked three times, once intentionally.
“I was all in on it – show off the bat, show off the wheels,” Caglianone said, smiling. “I embraced the role today.”