Down 3, Tennessee rallies for wild MCWS walk-off win over Florida St.
Down 3, Tennessee rallies for wild MCWS walk-off win over Florida St.
ByABC News
June 14, 2024, 11:49 PM
OMAHA, Neb. -- Dylan Dreiling lashed a game-winning single into the left-center gap in the bottom of the ninth inning and Tennessee stormed back from a three-run deficit to beat Florida State 12-11 at the Men's College World Series on Friday.
The top-seeded Volunteers overcame sloppy play in the field and poor pitching, ratcheting up their high-powered offense another notch in the ninth inning to win their first MCWS opener in five appearances since 2001.
Tennessee (56-12) will play North Carolina in a Bracket 1 winner's game on Sunday night. Florida State (47-16) will meet Virginia in an elimination game in the afternoon.
Moore went 5 for 6 for the Volunteers while becoming the first player to hit for the cycle at the MCWS since Minnesota's Jerry Kindall did it against Mississippi in 1956.
Tennessee, which trailed 9-4 in the fifth inning, overcame its biggest deficit to win on the road or at a neutral site since coming from five runs down to win at UC Irvine in 2017.
The Vols trailed 11-8 entering the bottom of the ninth. Kavares Tears, who homered earlier, tripled leading off and scored on a sacrifice fly.
Moore came to bat with two outs and a runner on base and was down to his last strike when he doubled into the left-field corner.
That brought up Blake Burke, who delivered the tying single up the middle after he might have caught a break when third-base umpire Shawn Rakos signaled Burke checked his swing on a pitch with two strikes. Burke moved to second on Billy Amick's single, and then Dreiling drove in the winning run on the second pitch from Connor Hults.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.