OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Dylan Dreiling’s single into the left-center gap drove in the go-ahead run in the bottom of the ninth inning and Tennessee rallied to beat Florida State 12-11 on Friday, capping a night when Christian Moore became the first player in 68 years to hit for the cycle at the College World Series.
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 CWS 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 CWS 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.