Tennessee Athletics
OMAHA, Neb. – The 2024 Tennessee baseball team made history Monday night in Omaha – winning the program's first national title with a 6-5 game three victory over No. 3 Texas A&M at the Men's College World Series at Charles Schwab Field.
The top-ranked Vols won 60 games en route to the program's MCWS crown – the first SEC team in history to reach 60 victories in a single season and just the fourth conference team to win the SEC regular season title, SEC Tournament title and the MCWS in the same season.
Tennessee also made history as it became the second No. 1 overall seed to win a national title since the tournament switched to its current format in 1999 – joining Miami who did so in 1999.
Holding a two-run lead in the seventh inning, MCWS MVP Dylan Dreiling hit a two-run bomb that sparked a three-run half-inning – giving Tennessee the insurance it needed to win college baseball's final game of the season.
Dreiling, a Hays native, was named the series MVP after going 7-for-12 with four runs scored and seven RBIs in the championship series. The sophomore homered in each game of the MCWS finals – the first player to ever do so.
Texas A&M made a late charge in the eighth as it scored a pair of runs off two singles and a double. Kirby Connell came on to pitch in relief and promptly shut down the rally, ending the inning with a pair of strikeouts.
In the ninth, A&M scratched across two more runs before Aaron Combs struck out Ted Burton to end the game and send Tennessee into a dogpile.