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College Football

Texas A&M beats Florida again, advancing to CWS championship showdown with Tennessee

Andrew Olson

By Andrew Olson

Published:

Texas A&M will play for a national championship. The Aggies defeated Florida for the second time in the College World Series, advancing to the best-of-3 championship series against Tennessee.

A&M faced UF in the CWS semifinals. The Aggies needed just 1 win to advance to the CWS finals, and they got it done on Wednesday night with a 6-0 victory.

As the shutout score indicates, Texas A&M pitchers led the way.

Jim Schlossnagle turned to Justin Lamkin, his Saturday night starter against Florida, for an encore performance. Lamkin once again had the Gators fooled, tossing 5 shutout innings as the Aggie bats went to work.

Lamkin finished with a line of 5 IP, 3 H, 1 BB and 9 K on 70 pitches.

Like the first meeting, Lamkin was relieved by Cortez. After back-to-back walks, Cortez was quickly pulled for Josh Stewart.

The move worked, as Stewart extinguished the Gator threat by retiring three in a row, including back-to-back swinging strikeouts.

Stewart pitched into the 8th inning. He was pulled with a 2-2 count against Cade Kurland after Jac Caglianone singled to open the frame. Schlossnagle did not feel like taking any chances, deciding to bring on standout stopper Evan Aschenbeck.

Kurland would walk, but Aschenbeck recovered to end the threat. He retired the next three Gator batters on a fly out, pop out and strike out looking to keep it 5-0 after 8 innings.

Protecting a 6-run lead, Aschenbeck worked around a 1-out walk in the 9th to retire the side. His final line was 2 IP, 2 BB, 1 K on 29 pitches.

Texas A&M took early lead, and never looked back

Schlossnagle’s Florida counterpart Kevin O’Sullivan also chose to use the same starter from the previous meeting. UF went with Liam Peterson for the second CWS game against Texas A&M. Unlike Lamkin, Peterson’s Wednesday outing went worse than his Saturday night start.

Peterson struggled to throw strikes, and the Aggies took advantage. Peterson walked four of the first five batters. He departed responsible for all 3 runners on base, with A&M up 1-0.

Fisher Jameson was brought in to relieve Peterson. Jameson induced a flyout, allowing Jace LaViolette to tag and score from third, extending the A&M lead to 2-0.

Jameson induced a grounder to end the threat. Peterson’s final line was 0.1 IP, 2 ER, 4 BB, 1 K.

Lamkin picked up right where he left off against Florida, setting the Gators down in order with 2 strikeouts on 11 pitches in the bottom of the 1st inning.

Lamkin worked around a leadoff double in the 2nd and bases loaded 1-out in the 3rd inning to protect A&M’s 2-0 lead.

A&M got to Jameson in the top of the 5th inning. Kaeden Kent led off the inning with a double. Gavin Grahovac hit a 1-out ground-rule double to plate Kent, extending the Aggies’ lead to 3-0.

The 5th would be Jameson’s final inning. He finished with a line of 4.2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER and 5 K on 81 pitches to keep the Gators in the game, though the bats did not provide any support.

Kevin O’Sullivan turned to Jake Clemente in the 6th. It was Clemente’s second appearance of the day after previously pitching in the win over Kentucky.

Clemente’s outing was brief. He issued a leadoff walk to Hayden Schott and retired Ted Burton on a lineout to left field. After 12 pitches, Clemente was replaced mid-at-bat by Brandon Neely, Florida’s star pitcher of the postseason.

Caden Sorrell saw two pitches from Neely before crushing a 2-run home run to right-center field, extending the A&M lead to 5-0.

A&M added an insurance run in the 9th off Neely (3 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 6 K). Ali Camarillo tripled and came home on a Kent single to make it 6-0.

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.

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