Gavin Grahovac homered to begin the game, Texas A&M broke it open with a five-run third inning and the Aggies beat Tennessee 9-5 in the College World Series finals opener Saturday night.
Evan Aschenbeck pitched 2 2/3 innings of shutout relief to turn back a Tennessee offence that was starting to get cranked up in the seventh inning. The Aggies (53-13) are a win from their first national title.
Tennessee (58-13), trying to become the first No. 1 national seed since 1999 to win the championship, will go into Sunday’s Game 2 having lost consecutive games just once this season and not since March 16-17 at Alabama.