• Photos from Tallahassee

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Texas A&M senior Kevin Gonzalez, draped in his drenched catcher’s gear, sprinted toward pitcher Nick Fleece in the midst — and mist — of one final throw from second to first Monday night. Gonzalez tackled Fleece, and their teammates tackled them.

Then the Aggies, in a north Florida drizzle, rejoiced in the end of a 12-year College World Series drought.

“I was just hoping nobody would get hurt,” a grinning Gonzalez said of A&M’s triumphant dog pile that wrapped up an NCAA tournament super regional at Florida State. “We need them this week.”

A&M, behind an outstanding start by Michael Wacha, whipped the Seminoles 11-2 in a deciding third game and punched its ticket to Omaha, Neb., for the first time since 1999.

The Aggies hadn’t won a lone super regional game since that season, but followed Saturday’s 6-2 victory behind starter Ross Stripling with the nine-run whipping of the favored Seminoles, who had earned the nation’s No. 5 seed and home-field advantage in the super regional. Florida State won the series’ middle game 23-9 on Sunday at Dick Howser Stadium.

“There are two things I enjoy,” A&M sixth-year coach Rob Childress said. “No. 1, sitting at the front of the bus and listening to our players laugh after we’ve won a game on the road. And, No. 2, watching our guys dogpile on the way to Omaha.”

The Aggies join Texas in the CWS, with 1993 the only other time the rivals have made the field in the same year. A&M will face defending national champion South Carolina at 6 p.m. Sunday in the opening round.

Wacha, a 6-6 righthander, coolly slid into the role of Aggies ace after then-No. 1 starter John Stilson was diagnosed with a torn labrum in the week prior to the start of the NCAA postseason. Wacha won the Aggies’ regional finale against Arizona a week ago.

Childress on Sunday had elected to hold Wacha back for a potential third game, in giving his arm another day of rest, and with the idea of having his top starter ready to go in a winner-take-all contest.

“I just knew I had to go out and throw strikes to help the team get to Omaha,” Wacha said.

One day after the free-swinging Seminoles rolled up the 23 runs against the Aggies, Wacha held them to three hits and two runs while striking out eight over 7 1⁄3 innings.

“Wacha is the real deal,” said Seminoles coach Mike Martin, whose team finished 46-19. “That was great stuff.”

Meanwhile, A&M’s offense jumped on Seminoles starter Hunter Scantling and reliever Brian Busch for four runs each in the first two innings in grabbing an 8-0 lead. The Aggies scored six runs in the first, an inning highlighted by Gonzalez’s two-RBI double to right center.

An inning later, Adam Smith crushed a two-out, two-run homer to lift the Aggies to an 8-0 lead and put away the game shortly after it started, thanks to another strong outing from Wacha, who hasdn’t allowed more than five runs in an outing this season.

The surging Aggies, who were primarily led by their pitching through the first three quarters of the season, have averaged nearly eight runs per game over their last 11 contests. The showers came in the eighth on Monday, but they were too late to slow A&M’s cruise to the CWS.

“We’re rolling right now,” Smith said. “When everyone is hitting, it’s contagious.”

So, too, was the celebratory dogpile started by Gonzalez and Fleece.

brent.zwerneman@chron.com