After Tennessee tallied three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning on Saturday night during the College World Series finals opener, Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle knew that he needed to call upon one man with a very particular set of skills.
He called upon the “Stopper of the Year” to close the game. Senior LHP Evan Aschenbeck did exactly that, pitching 2.2 scoreless innings and giving up 2 hits with a staggering 7 strikeouts on 46 pitches.
“It’s just something that I’ve been doing all year,” Aschenbeck recalled. “Just trying to give my team the best chance to win, that’s what pitchers are for. Max (Weiner) tells us all the time, ‘If some guy comes in and doesn’t have a good outing, the next guy can’t do that.’ Our job as relief pitchers is to come in and pick up the guy in front of us.
“Coming in to that opportunity was awesome because the atmosphere was crazy. It’s the College World Series, everything is cool about it. It was staying present and going pitch to pitch is what worked for me.”
The No. 3 Aggies (53-13) will attempt to win their first national championship in program history on Sunday at 1 p.m. versus No. 1 Tennessee (58-13) on ABC and ESPN+.
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