Five teams played three games in the Men’s College World Series on Wednesday and the end result is a Texas A&M-Tennessee championship series.
It was a packed schedule as a second-round game between Kentucky and Florida scheduled for Tuesday was postponed due to weather, leading to a doubleheader for the Gators with Texas A&M waiting in the wings. Meanwhile, top seed Tennessee was one win away from its first championship appearance since 1951.
So it will be another full SEC championship. Since 2020, when the tournament was canceled due to COVID-19, seven of the eight teams that made the final bracket were from the SEC. The one exception: 2022 Oklahoma, a program about to join the SEC.
Here’s how everything played out.
Texas A&M 6, Florida 0
After pounding Kentucky, Florida started the game in trouble and spent the entire game in more trouble.
Gators starting pitcher Liam Peterson, a freshman, led off the game by walking the first five batters he faced, which produced the first run and left reliever Fisher Jameson in a bases-loaded, one-out situation to start the game . Aggies fans loved it.
Jameson managed to escape the situation with just one more point, but that ultimately proved to be the difference between elimination and forcing a second game in the semi-finals. Aggies starting pitcher Justin Lamkin, who threw three scoreless innings against Florida on Saturday, this time threw another five scoreless innings, striking out nine and allowing only three hits.
Aggies relievers Chris Cortez, Josh Stewart and Evan Aschenbeck ended the shutout over the next four innings.
Key statistics
A very good way to eliminate a foul is to not allow big hits. The Texas A&M pitching staff had four total hits, with a Colby Shelton double being the only one to add extra bases.
Highlights
A shutout doesn’t happen without good defense behind it and Ali Camarillo Jr. made a silky smooth catch in the third inning when the Gators had loaded the bases.
The game was broken open in the sixth inning, when Caden Sorell went to the yardage to put the Aggies ahead by five points.
Tennessee 7, Florida State 2
In the second game of the day, Tennessee made it easy on Florida State to extend the Volunteers’ postseason and advance to the finals.
Tennessee got things going early by scoring three runs in the first inning and adding a fourth in the second. Although Florida State put up some strong efforts, the Volunteers held the Seminoles scoreless for six innings while adding two more runs: one in the fourth and one in the seventh.
Back-to-back solo home runs from Daniel Cantu and Alex Lodise in the seventh inning put Florida State on the board, but the Seminoles couldn’t close the gap. A home run by Tennessee first baseman Blake Burke to lead off the ninth sealed the deal for the Volunteers, ending Florida State’s season.
Key statistics
Tennessee pitcher Zander Sechrist had a great game for the Volunteers over six innings, striking out three and allowing only five hits.
On the Florida State side, starting pitcher John Abraham was pulled from the field shortly after Tennessee’s hot bats got going in the first inning. He was replaced by Brenner Oxford, who struckout four batters in three innings. Joe Charles then finished the game, striking out five while holding the Volunteers to just three hits.
Highlights
Although Tennessee’s bats gave the team the early lead, it was the Vols’ fielding that held the lead. Tennessee midfielder Kaveres Tears helped keep Florida State scoreless with a monstrous catch against the wall — losing his hat and goggles but somehow holding on to the ball — to end the first inning.
Volunteers second baseman Christian Moore had another good night, hitting an RBI triple in the fourth to extend Tennessee’s lead.
The back-to-back dingers in the seventh highlighted Florida State’s main offensive threat of the night, with both sailing past right field with ease.
But Burke’s homer sealed the deal for Tennessee, adding to the Volunteers’ insurmountable lead and helping to clinch the team’s win.
Florida 15, Kentucky 4
Florida used a big first inning to advance to the evening semifinal against the Aggies. The Gators scored seven runs in the first inning, chasing Kentucky starter Dominic Niman after he recorded just one out while allowing five runs on three hits. One of those hits was a grand slam by Donay that gave Florida a 7-1 lead.
The Gators scored two more in the bottom of the third, five more in the fifth and one more in the sixth.
Kentucky found it difficult to break through against Florida lefty Pierce Coppola, who pitched five innings and struck out nine.
Émilien Pitre’s two-run home run off Coppola in the top of the fifth inning was the last time the Wildcats would score in the game.
Key statistics
Donay is the fifth Gator with a multi-home run game in this College World Series. His second blast of the match traveled 130 meters and delivered an exit velocity of 187.6 km per hour, the hardest-hit ball in the tournament. He finished the game 3-for-5 with five RBI.
Highlights
The Gators jumped the Wildcats early, punctuated by Donay’s opposite-field grand slam.
Donay wasn’t done hitting bombs yet. He led off the bottom of the fifth with his 14th home run of the season to make it 10-5 Gators.
Jac Caglianone hit his 35th home run of the season and 75th of his Gators career, passing Matt LaPorta for the most in program history.
