Tennessee baseball history tells you how hard it is to win at the College World Series. But that history took a beating Wednesday afternoon at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.

So did the Florida State Seminoles.

The Vols moved a step closer to their first baseball national championship with a 7-2 victory over Florida State. And they sometimes made it look easy.

Unlike Friday’s 12-11 comeback victory against Florida State, Tennessee took charge right away while eliminating the Seminoles from the NCAA Tournament. This victory was more akin to UT’s 6-1 victory over North Carolina on Sunday.

The No. 1 Vols excelled in hitting and pitching in their rematch with Florida State as they improved their record to 3-0 in this CWS and 58-12 overall. They advanced to play Texas A&M (52-13) in the championship best-of-three series, which will begin Saturday (7:30 p.m., ESPN).

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That’s not business as usual for Tennessee in the CWS. The Vols were national runners-up in their first CWS in 1951. They haven’t come close to a championship since then – until now.

UT has demonstrated its versatility as well as its superiority in Omaha. Hitting and relief pitching have been team strengths all season. But its starting pitching has distinguished itself the past two games.

Zander Sechrist followed up Drew Beam’s solid outing against North Carolina with a clutch performance against the hard-hitting Seminoles, who didn’t help their cause with risky baserunning.

Florida State had runners on second and third to open the third, but things went downhill from there. Jaxson West was thrown out by a huge margin at home, and James Tibbs hit into an inning-ending double play.

By then, Tennessee already had a four-run lead. All that scoring came without a home run. How’s that for a plot twist?

The Vols entered the game with a nation-leading, school-record 177 home runs, the second-highest single-season total in NCAA history. Only LSU in 1997 (188 homers) hit more.

Tennessee doesn't have to hit the ball over the wall to warrant a CWS highlight video. It also can get your attention by running into a wall.

Center fielder Hunter Ensley charged into the wall as he made a backhanded catch against North Carolina. Ensley served as a designated hitter Wednesday because of a “lower-body” injury, and right fielder Kavares Tears shifted to center.

Tears didn’t just replace Ensley. He re-enacted Ensley’s defensive play, chasing down a deep shot and catching the ball just as he hit the padded wall in center field.

That defensive gem added to Florida State’s frustration. The Seminoles often struggled to time Sechrist’s pitches. And when they did, their hardest hits invariably ended up in a Tennessee glove. For example, cleanup batter Marco Dinges hit the ball hard in each of his first three at-bats but had only outs to show for it.

Finally, in the seventh inning, the Seminoles hit the ball where the Vols couldn’t catch it. Daniel Cantu and Alex Lodise launched back-to-back home runs to right field with one out.

Those proved to be only slip-ups, not signs the Vols were losing their grip on a game that had been in their grasp from the first inning on. Instead, reliever Kirby Connell closed out the inning and faced only three batters in the eighth. Nate Snead took care of the Seminoles in the ninth.

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Florida State’s relief pitchers weren’t as fortunate. UT’s Blake Burke hit a home run to lead off the ninth inning to become the fifth Vol with 20 or more homers, the first time any team in NCAA history has had that many.

The Vols now will enter the championship series with their starting pitching rotation set and a rested bullpen. The way they’re playing they might need only two more games to finish what they started.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: twitter.com/johnadamskns.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee baseball national championship within reach at CWS