College World Series 2024: Final Predictions for Texas A&M vs. Tennessee Game 3
June 24, 2024
The college baseball season comes down to one game in Omaha on Monday night.
The Texas A&M Aggies and Tennessee Volunteers split the first two games of the College World Series championship series on Saturday and Sunday.
A&M jumped out to an early lead in Game 1 and never relinquished it. Tennessee answered back with its bats in Game 2.
Both teams will likely use an all-hands-on-deck pitching strategy for Monday. The best starting arms on each staff threw over the last two days.
A combination of strong pitching and one or two big innings at the plate could get either team over the finish line to earn the first national championship in program history.
College World Series Game 3 Info
Date: Monday, June 24
Start Time: 7 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: ESPN.com and ESPN App
Preview
A&M and Tennessee traded jabs in the SEC baseball prize fight over the last two days in Omaha.
The Aggies struck first by scoring seven runs in the first three innings of Game 1. Since then, they have mustered three runs over 15 innings.
Texas A&M scored the first run of Game 2, but that was the only scoring play it produced on Sunday.
Tennessee took some time to get its bats going, but it got a pair of home runs late in Game 2 to reignite the offense and force Game 3.
Tennessee's offense was one of the best in the country all season long, but A&M's pitching staff has done a good job of neutralizing the Vols bats.
The Vols played from behind in Game 1, so the home run power did not make a massive impact on the final score because A&M was already up by multiple runs.
The pop at the plate made the difference in Game 2 for the Vols, but the home runs came from the bottom half of the order.
A&M excelled at slowing down Christian Moore, Blake Burke and Billy Amick at the top of the Tennessee order. They are a combined 7-for-25 in the series.
Tennessee needs one or more of those three sluggers to wake up at the plate in Game 3 to pull away from the Aggies.
Conversely, the key for whomever toes the rubber for A&M is to keep the Vols' top power bats at bay so that one third of their lineup is neutralized.
A&M's had a balanced approach on offense throughout the championship series, and although it is not known for the long ball as much as Tennessee, it has three home runs in the series.
The last A&M long ball came from Jace LaViolette, who is the best player in the lineup. Projected top-10 pick Braden Montgomery is out with a season-ending leg injury.
If LaViolette uses his Game 2 home run as a confidence booster, he could be the difference-maker in an A&M lineup that has been better across two games than Tennessee.
The Vols' power bats could always wake up and shift the series in their favor, but based on how the first two games went, A&M owns a slight advantage.
Prediction: Texas A&M 5, Tennessee 3.
