OMAHA, Neb. – For the first time since 1951, Tennessee baseball is headed to the Men’s College World Series championship series after beating No. 6/9 Florida State, 7-2, on Wednesday afternoon at Charles Schwab Field.
With the win, UT posted its first 3-0 start in MCWS history and set a program-record for wins in a single season with its 58th of the year, passing the 2022 team.
The Volunteers (58-12) got another impressive performance on the mound from Zander Sechrist, who earned the win after allowing just two runs on five hits over 6.1 innings, which marks back-to-back career-high outings in innings pitched for the senior lefthander.
Over his last five starts, Sechrist is 4-0 with a 1.23 ERA and has given up just four earned runs in 29.1 innings pitched. Additionally, the southpaw has tossed six or more innings in four of his last five starts. The Buford, Georgia, native carried a shutout into the seventh inning on Wednesday before a pair of solo homers by the Seminoles ended his dominant day.
Kirby Connell and Nate Snead made their third relief appearances in as many games, both allowing zero runs and just one hit to close out the victory.
Blake Burke led the way offensively for the Big Orange, going 3-for-5 with two RBIs and a monster solo home run to lead off the ninth inning and put an exclamation point on the game.
The Brentwood, California, native’s homer was his 50th career four-bagger and 20th of the season. Burke joins four of his teammates in the 20-homer club, making Tennessee the first school in NCAA Division I history to have five players with 20 or more home runs in a single season.
Christian Moore and Billy Amick recorded multi-hit performances, as well, both registering two hits, two runs and an RBI apiece.
Moore’s second hit of the game was a triple down the right field line that plated Cal Stark and extended the Vols’ lead to 5-0. The New York native did not record a single triple last season and now has two in three games at this year’s MCWS.
Daniel Cantu and Alex Lodise drove in the only two runs for FSU (49-17) with back-to-back solo homers in the bottom of the seventh inning. Starting pitcher John Abraham faced just five hitters and recorded only one out after giving up three runs (two earned) on two hits and two walks, falling to 5-2 on the year.
STATS OF THE GAME: With Burke’s solo home run in the top of the ninth, Tennessee became the first school in NCAA Division I history to have five players with 20 or more home runs in one season. The only other program to have four with 20-plus long balls was Alabama in 1997.
With Wednesday’s 7-2 victory over the Seminoles, UT broke its single-season program-record for wins with 58. If the Vols were to win the championship series this weekend, they would become the first team in SEC history to reach 60 wins in a season.
UP NEXT: Tennessee will square off against Texas A&M in the MCWS Finals, a best two-of-three series which begins on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. CT (7:30 p.m. ET) on ESPN. Game two is slated for Sunday at 1 p.m. CT (2 p.m. ET) on ABC and game three (if necessary) would take place on Monday at 6 p.m. CT (7 p.m. ET) on ESPN.
