Friday’s College World Series action started with two games at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha. The first ended on a walk-off as North Carolina defeated Virginia, and the second saw an incredible comeback that finished the same way.
No. 8 seed Florida State and No. 1 seed Tennessee squared off in the nightcap, and both teams had their share of mistakes early. But it became an exciting game down the stretch, and the Vols rallied back from five runs down to get the victory as Dylan Dreiling delivered the game-winner with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
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It marks the first time both opening games at the CWS ended with walk-offs. Considering there’s still plenty of baseball left, it could be an exciting week at Charles Schwab Field.
The Seminoles struck first with a bases-loaded walk in the first inning of Friday’s contest, but Tennessee answered back with two RBI singles in the bottom of the inning and two more runs in the second. Then, the floodgates in the third opened as Florida State capitalized on multiple mistakes.
The ‘Noles put up a six-spot in the inning, including two on a double from Jaime Ferrer, to take a 7-4 lead. That advantage then grew to 9-2 in the fourth inning when he hit a two-run home run as part of his 4-RBI day.
But Tennessee didn’t go away, getting a two-run home run from Kavares Tears in the fifth inning and a solo shot from Christian Moore – a historic one, at that, to complete the cycle – to make it a 9-7 game. Once again, Florida State answered back on a two-run double from Marco Dinges to get the lead back to 11-7 into the bottom of the eighth.
But Tennessee didn’t back down. The Volunteers got one of those runs back in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single from Dreiling to get back within three runs before FSU got out of the inning and headed to the ninth.
After a scoreless top half, Conner Whitaker came back out for the Seminoles to get the final three outs, but left the game after a sacrifice fly made it 11-9. Brennan Oxford then came in to relieve him, but the Vols stayed hot. Christian Moore hit a double with two outs to put runners on second and third, and Blake Burke tied it up at 11-11 one hitter later.
After another pitching change, Dreiling was the hero. He sent the walk-off double to left-center field to score Burke and give Tennessee the 12-11 win.
Now, the Vols are heading to the winners bracket, where they will take on North Carolina Sunday night. As for the Seminoles, they’re on the losers’ side and will square off against ACC foe Virginia to get things started Sunday afternoon.
The College World Series format features two brackets in a double-elimination format starting Friday and Saturday. Then, the final two teams will square off in a best-of-three series starting June 22.
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