If Tennessee baseball bests this Texas A&M team, the Vols will have earned title | Estes

OMAHA, Neb. – Lest anyone start parading yet for Tennessee baseball, I’ll point out a rain cloud. It’s a sobering assessment from, of all people, Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin, who said this back in mid-April:

“It was one of the finest collections of players I've seen on the other side in quite some time.”

Not Tennessee. Corbin hadn’t yet played Tennessee. At the time, he was talking about Texas A&M.

The Commodores had just been swept in College Station, getting pummeled in three games by a combined score of 36-6.

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So, yeah, the Aggies are awfully dang good, too.

Congrats to college baseball’s protracted, quirky, unpredictable postseason. It has, in this instance, generated an appropriate and worthy championship series.

Texas A&M (52-13) and Tennessee (58-12) were probably the two best teams in the bracket all along and certainly the two best to make it to the College World Series. Since arriving in Omaha, neither has lost, building up to Saturday's start of an enticing best-of-three series between two programs who’ve never won an NCAA title and two special teams in special seasons.

For one, it’ll end up being a lot more special.

“It’d be awesome if we were at full strength. That’d be really cool,” Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle quipped on Friday. “But we’re also playing well, and I think we’re pitching well. I watch a lot of college baseball. … Tennessee is far away the best team I’ve seen outside of our team this year.”

Friday was the second day in a row without a game for the two remaining College World Series teams.

But it wasn’t a day off.

As Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said, the CWS is “such a unique combination of down time and obligations” for teams, and Friday brought practices and press conferences prior to the championship series. As Vitello sat in front of the media, baseball's NCAA championship trophy sat perched nearby as a decoration, poised for its moment to feature prominently in that most awkward sports tradition – the pregame grip and grin photo between coaches.

These two didn’t need an introduction. From 2011-13, Vitello coached on Schlossnagle’s staff at TCU. Their history makes a fun and prominent storyline for this championship series.

Once the games start, though, it’ll be more about the fact that Tennessee might have the best hitting in the country – or it could be that Texas A&M might have the best pitching. Something will have to give.

Beginning with ace Ryan Prager (9-1, 2.88 ERA), who is throwing in Game 1, the Aggies will send a collection of talented arms out there to try to quiet the Vols’ powerful offense.

“They are capable of shutting down anybody,” Vitello said.

A Texas A&M pitching staff that ranked third nationally in ERA this season (3.80) is sitting at 1.00 in Omaha. The Aggies have allowed only three earned runs in 27 innings and limited opponents to a batting average of .168.

“We’ve caught the baseball. We’ve pitched well,” Schlossnagle said. “That’s really been the recipe, with some timely hits. We’ve hit one homer by a freshman in this tournament, and the home run, most of the season, has been a big part of our offense. That’s why you have a great season. You can win games different ways.”

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That the Vols are still favored has to do with their offensive production thus far in Omaha (a sporty .321 with five home runs) – and the Aggies’ health.

As noted above by Schlossnagle, Texas A&M isn't at full strength. The Aggies are a banged-up group, having lost one of their best hitters in Braden Montgomery to injury, and Schlossnagle named at least four other players Friday who are overcoming something.

Take note that Schlossnagle, who has been coaching since 1990, also said this Friday about his Aggies: “Just pure, draftable talent, it’s the best team I’ve coached.”

Yup, they’re awfully good, folks.

Let’s go find out if these Vols are better.

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee baseball gets tough College World Series final vs Texas A&M