OMAHA, Neb. — Texas A&M scored all of its runs in the sixth inning, Ryan Prager held Kentucky hitless into the seventh and the Aggies are off to their best start in a College World Series after their 5-1 win Monday night.
The Aggies (51-13) are 2-0 in the CWS for the first time in eight all-time appearances and have taken control of Bracket 2. They’ll await the winner of a Tuesday elimination game between Florida and Kentucky (46-15) in the bracket final Wednesday. They would have to lose twice to be kept out of the best-of-three finals.
Prager (9-1), the season-long No. 1 pitcher for A&M, wiggled out of trouble twice before Ryan Nicholson lined the ball over second base for the Wildcats’ first hit with two outs in the seventh. Nolan McCarthy followed with a double, putting runners on the corners, and then reliever Josh Stewart came on to strike out Patrick Herrera.
Prager, rocked for six runs in 1 2/3 innings in his super-regional start against Oregon, threw only 10 pitches in a 1-2-3 first inning against the Wildcats, and he retired 13 in a row from the second to sixth inning. The sophomore left-hander walked one, hit a batter and struck out four.
Not everything went smoothly. A&M catcher Jackson Appel made a huge play with two outs in the second when James McCoy bunted to the left side with Nick Lopez heading home from third. Appel ran down the ball and fired to first to get McCoy on a close play upheld on review.
The Wildcats had two runners on with one out in the sixth after a walk and error. Prager got out of the inning when Kaeden Kent fielded Devin Burkes’ sharp grounder down the third-base line, tagged the bag and threw to first for an inning-ending double play.
Texas A&M scored five times in the sixth to take control. Jace LaViolette walked leading off against Mason Moore (9-4), Appel doubled into the right-field corner and both came home on Hayden Schott’s single into left field. Cameron O’Brien came on in relief and gave up an RBI double to Ali Camarillo and a two-run single to Kent.
Kentucky ended the Aggies’ bid for a nation-leading 12th shutout when Nicholson homered with one out in the ninth.
The only down side for the Aggies was an injury to LaViolette, who hobbled on his right leg crossing home plate in the sixth. LaViolette leads the Aggies with 28 homers and 77 RBIs, and he was the hero of their CWS-opening win over Florida when his catch at the fence robbed the Gators of a go-ahead homer in the ninth inning.
Texas A&M already lost projected top-five draft pick Braden Montgomery to a broken ankle and starting pitcher Shane Sdao to an arm injury in super regionals.
Florida wins 5-4 over NC State
OMAHA, Neb. — Two-way star Jac Caglianone broke the Florida single-season home run record to give his school the lead an inning after he struggled on the mound and got pulled, and the Gators eliminated North Carolina State from the College World Series with a 5-4 victory Monday.
Florida (35-29) moved to another elimination game Tuesday against the loser of Monday night’s Texas A&M-Kentucky matchup.
NC State (38-23) went 0-2 in the CWS for the first time in four all-time appearances.
Caglianone, a projected top-five pick in next month’s amateur draft because of his bat, not his arm, labored through a 33-pitch first inning. The 6-foot-5, 250-pound lefty hit a batter and walked two to loaded the bases, gave up Brandon Butterworth’s RBI single and then got a strikeout and fly out to mitigate what could have been a big inning for NC State.
His fastball averaged 89.5 mph in the inning — it had never been below 92 mph in his career, according to ESPN — and he was shown rubbing his elbow in the dugout after the first inning. Coach Kevin O’Sullivan opted to lift him for Cade Fisher (4-3) but said during an in-game interview that Caglianone’s problem related to fatigue rather than an injury.
Caglianone stayed in the game as the designated hitter and atoned for what happened on the mound. NC State starter Dominic Fritton (3-7) struck him out on three pitches in the first inning, but in the second Caglianone drilled his low fastball over the right-center fence for a three-run homer and 4-1 lead.
The 404-foot low rider was his 34th homer of the season, breaking his school’s single-season record of 33 set last year, and moved him into a tie with Matt LaPorta (2004-07) for career homers at Florida with 74.
Logan Whitaker replaced Fritton to start the third and allowed two hits and a run and struck out 10 over seven innings.
The Wolfpack’s Alec Makarewicz and Gators’ Tyler Shelnut also homered, and NC State cut the lead to 5-4 in the fifth on Butterworth’s RBI double.
NC State had its leadoff man reach base in the sixth, seventh and eighth but couldn’t push the tying run across. Luke Nixon got caught stealing second in the sixth, and the Wolfpack left two runners on base in the seventh and stranded a man on third in the eighth when Brandon Neely ended both innings with strikeouts.
The Wolfpack, which was third in the nation with seven walk-off wins, had the top of the order up in the bottom of the ninth. Neely caught Eli Serrano III looking at strike three, Garrett Pennington struck out when he couldn’t check his swing on a pitch out of the zone, and Makarewicz lined out to left to end the game.