Tennessee evens CWS championship series at 1-1

Winner take all Game 3 on Monday

Texas A&M held the lead on Sunday for more than six innings, but Tennessee broke through late to take game two of the College World Series championship series 4-1. Game 3 will be at 6 p.m. on Monday, with the winner being crowned national champion.

Much like game one, the Aggies took the lead on a first-inning home run. Yesterday it was leadoff man Gavin Grahovac, today is was the No. 2 hitter Jace LaViolette, breaking out of his power slump in a big way. But unfortunately, that would be the only offense the Aggies got on the day. The Vols struggled to score runs early as well, despite getting guys on base with regularity. In fact A&M held Tennessee scoreless through six innings. A big reason for that is reliever Chris Cortez, who came in after just one inning from starter Zane Badmaev (which was likely the plan all along). Cortez did walk four runners, showing some control issues, but more than made up for it by striking out six and allowing no runs through 4.1 innings of work.

The Vols finally broke through in the top of 7th thanks to a two-out, two-run home run off the bat of Dylan Dreiling, putting them up 2-1. And they padded that lead with yet another two-run homer from Cal Stark in the 8th. A&M did get baserunners on in both of the final two innings, but couldn’t get hits when they needed them to make things interesting.

Not only was today the Aggies’ only loss of the College World Series, it was the first time they even faced a deficit. But now they must move on and shift their attention to preparing for a decisive game three on Monday.

The Aggies will likely start Justin Lamkin on the mound, who has yet to surrender a run in eight innings pitched over two previous starts in the College World Series.