Tennessee baseball created unforgettable memories by winning the program’s first national championship in Omaha.
But not every story is told about the experience, so Knox News set out to bring you some of the memories that didn’t make it into coverage. We reached out players, coaches, media and fans about that magical run at the College World Series.
Here are their unique stories about an unparalleled experience.
From ballpark celebration to hospital and back
The national title run was almost derailed before it began. In the Vols’ first game in Omaha, they pulled off a wild rally with four runs in the ninth inning to beat Florida State, 12-11.
When Dylan Dreiling hit the walk-off single to the left-centerfield wall, the orange-clad crowd erupted as fans leaped from their seats.
UT fan Emily King, sitting on the front row down the left-field line, jumped as high as she could in celebration and then heard a loud pop in her lower leg. She had ruptured her Achilles tendon.
The adrenaline of the win deadened the pain for a few moments. But she eventually hobbled out of the stadium and went to the emergency room. Doctors discouraged her from attending any more CWS games, but she didn’t listen.
She postponed surgery until after the CWS. Her husband painted her mobility scooter orange, and they attended every UT game. When the Vols won the title, King sat behind their dugout and raised her walking boot in celebration. It was worth the pain.
Watching epic comeback from press conference room
The coach and players of the losing team appear first at College World Series postgame press conferences.
So when the Vols trailed 11-8 to start the ninth inning against Florida State, UT associate director of media relations Sean Barows rushed from the press box to field level. He needed to grab coach Tony Vitello and two players as soon as the game ended and escort them to the press conference room.
But Kavares Tears led off the inning with a triple, and the tone suddenly changed.
“When I walked into the press conference room, I’ll never forget one of the video guys who was helping film the press conferences tell me, ‘You guys are going to win this game,’” Barows recalled.
“I sat in the press conference room and watched on the big screen as we made that incredible comeback.”
Barows was transfixed, not moving until the comeback was complete.
“I’ll never forget sprinting from that room to the dugout and onto the field after Dylan Dreiling’s game-winning hit and just seeing the absolute joy and excitement on everyone’s faces,” Barows said. “I think that was the moment when I personally knew that nothing was going to stop this team from winning it all.”
How did you get into Peyton Manning’s suite?
The final game of the College World Series was a star-studded event for UT. Legendary quarterback Peyton Manning, basketball coach Rick Barnes, football coach Josh Heupel and country music singer Morgan Wallen were in a luxury suite together cheering for the Vols.
But when ESPN cameras panned across the foursome, a blond-haired teenager was in the corner of the frame.
It was Jack Ball, a 16-year-old from Dyersburg. He had traveled with his parents to the CWS after his dad had secured tickets for Game 1 of the final from a work friend whose corporate office is based in Omaha.
They couldn’t get tickets to Game 2. But on the morning of Game 3, that same friend came through with seats in Suite 19. It just so happened that Suite 18 was occupied by Manning and his crew.
“There was security there, and Peyton wore No. 18. So I knew who was in there,” Jack’s father, Scott, said.
Jack summoned the courage to introduce himself. Barnes and Manning politely chatted with the junior soccer player from Gibson County High, and they posed for photos.
Only a rail separated the suites. So when ESPN cameras and photos on social media showed the Tennessee celebrities, it appeared that Jack was part of their exclusive party.
His phone exploded with messages: “Jack, is that you sitting with Peyton Manning?”
It was, sort of. And Jack Ball left Omaha with memories of a national championship game that he could’ve never imagined.
Leading Vols to victory through a group chat
Drew Beam had come too far to not see the task through.
The pitcher hopped into one of the team’s group chats with a message late Saturday night after the Vols lost Game 3 to Texas A&M. “Just one more day,” the veteran Beam wrote in the GroupMe titled “Do It Loose.” He was the one who could ensure it was the case.
“That kid loves this state more than anybody,” outfielder Hunter Ensley said. “He continues to perform on the biggest stage over and over and over.”
Beam had been in two prior elimination games in his career in the NCAA Tournament. He excelled in both and he did so against Texas A&M, hurling four innings of one-run baseball with seven strikeouts.
Beam, a Murfreesboro native, has used the group chat in such ways before. He picked moments throughout the year to offer encouragement and positivity to a team lauded for its chemistry. He received in-jest comments from his teammates for that message the night before Game 2 – then made sure UT got another day.
Calling the shot from the centerfield stands
Fans often remember a moment because of their perceived part in it.
UT fan Jared Anderson and his dad drove 10 hours from Dresden in northwest Tennessee to see Game 2 of the final, and then they had to return home.
With the Vols clinging to a 2-1 lead over Texas A&M, they had a runner on base and two outs in the eighth inning. Catcher Cal Stark was due to bat, but he was buried in a 0-for-16 slump.
In the centerfield stands, UT fans called for a pinch hitter. They loved Stark, a Knoxville native and team leader, but this was no time for loyalty to cloud good judgment.
Anderson, however, had a hunch. And apparently so did coach Tony Vitello, who left Stark in the lineup.
“Stark is due. He’s going yard right here, right now,” Anderson told the UT fans around him.
Two pitches later, Stark snapped his slump and blasted a two-run home run over the left-field wall. Anderson recapped the story with his dad on the long overnight drive back to Dresden and then retold it to anyone who would listen.
“I actually had nothing to do with Stark squaring it up and hitting that ball,” Anderson said. “But I’ll take full credit for it.”
Relief and victory came from restroom break
When UT football won the national title at the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 4, 1999, newlyweds Jaime and Randy Greene didn’t travel to the game. And they’ve regretted it ever since.
So when UT baseball clinched a spot in the College World Series final, they immediately packed their car and drove 961 miles from Morristown to Omaha.
But the Vols lost Game 1, and they trailed 1-0 through six innings in Game 2.
“And it felt like we were down 12-0,” Randy Greene said. “It was like we had come all the way there, and we were going to get swept.”
Randy’s nerves were shot, and his bladder was full. So he ran to the restroom in hopes of a reset. Just as he returned to his seat, his favorite player, Dylan Dreiling, smashed a two-run go-ahead home run.
UT never trailed again in Omaha. And Randy Greene never felt another hint of stress.
“Maybe me going to the restroom is all that it took,” he said. “If so, I’ll go all the time in Neyland (Stadium) for now on.”
Putt-putt golf before biggest game in Vols history
Veteran reliever Kirby Connell pitched in all six games in Omaha. But his family will remember what happened off the field as much as on the mound during those two weeks.
Kirby’s dad, mom and two older brothers treated the College World Series like an extended family holiday.
They ate several meals together, played putt-putt golf numerous times, rode scooters around Omaha and spent more relaxing family time together than they had in years.
And thanks to coach Tony Vitello’s laid-back approach, Kirby and his teammates were free to do all that with family between games, practices and team meetings.
Their final round of putt-putt golf was actually after Game 2 of the final, when most teams would be worrying about the winner-take-all game coming the next night.
“I thought it was neat that the team stayed loose like that,” Jeff Connell, Kirby’s dad, said. “But Tony is a different coach. And that’s why his players love him.”
Taylor Swift and popsicles set mood for title game
You’d imagine that a locker room before a national championship game would be tense. And in many cases, it is.
Players often listen to their own music through headphones. Some are deep in thought or prayer. They lie on the floor and sit alone in their locker.
But not the Vols. Before Game 3, they danced to upbeat Taylor Swift and Katy Perry pop songs. They joked around as if the game was furthest from their mind. And a nutritionist delivered popsicles to the team, something she hadn’t done all season.
“It was a sweet time. No one was in their own world. It was just one big family,” student equipment manager Lance Tudor said.
“This group was always easy going like that, especially in elimination games. There was never an ‘oh, crap, this could be our last game’ feeling. It was fun. No stress at all.”
How Tennessee pitcher met the moment with ease
Zander Sechrist walked side by side with Kirby Connell after UT won Game 2 against Texas A&M in the finals. Sechrist held a towel around the back of his neck and was as relaxed as could be.
“Enough to make a grown man cry right there,” Sechrist said.
The one-time midweek starter would make the most important start of his career, and in UT baseball history, a day later. The senior left-handed pitcher’s loose nature allowed him to excel throughout the postseason.
In Sechrist’s final six starts, the Vols won a share of the SEC regular-season title, an SEC Tournament semifinal, the Knoxville Regional, the Knoxville Super Regional, clinched a spot in the College World Series final, and won the national title.
Sechrist catapulted himself from midweek starter to weekend opener to big-game starter. He threw four quality starts in his final six starts, and all six were sterling efforts.
He headed for the bullpen well after the on-field national championship celebration ended. He had no idea where his equipment was. Someone had already fetched it for him.
Best last day ever ended with one more task
Since February, UT director of baseball operations Chad Zurcher knew that he would transition into an administrative job on the university side once the season ended.
He wanted a change of pace to spend more time with his wife and 11-month-old son. But Zurcher didn’t tell the UT players until after the College World Series.
He enjoyed the final moments of his last game. But he also had a job to do.
With two outs in the ninth inning of Game 3, Zurcher jogged to the locker room and fetched a box of NCAA champion cardboard cutouts that players on the winning team were supposed to hold during the celebration.
But Zurcher left the box unopened in the hallway. As a superstitious baseball purist, he thought opening it could jinx the Vols.
“When we got the final out, (assistant director of baseball operations) Adam Low hugged me so hard that my gum flew out of my mouth,” Zurcher said. “But then I ran back into the hallway to grab the box.
“So I kind of missed the beginning of the on-field celebration. But there was a job to do, and somebody has to do it.”
Having an ‘out-of-body experience’ on the air
John Wilkerson, the longtime UT baseball play-by-play radio announcer, tried to keep his routine the same in Game 3 of the final. But he made one modification.
Wilkerson usually drinks very few beverages during the broadcast to avoid having to go to the restroom during short commercial breaks in the late innings. But it was 98 degrees in Omaha, so he had to drink a lot of water late in the game.
Otherwise, he felt like his usual self. And he delivered a well-thought final call when the Vols won it that became an instant classic.
But a colleague recorded a video of Wilkerson’s reaction in the press box while making that final call. Hours after the game, Wilkerson watched it and didn’t believe how animated he had been.
“It sounds almost cliché to say it, but it approached an out-of-body experience for me when it really happened,” Wilkerson said. “It was funny to see on that video what my hands were doing. They kept climbing toward the air.
“Goodness gracious, there was so much I don’t remember doing in that moment.”
Capturing the photo that says so much
Seasoned Knox News photographer Brianna Paciorka knows getting a great shot involves good instincts, timing and luck.
All three converged when she captured an image of football coach Josh Heupel hugging baseball coach Tony Vitello amid the on-field celebration.
NCAA staffers were guiding photographers toward home plate to set up for the trophy presentation. And it appeared the initial emotion of the moment was starting to settle.
Near third base, Vitello was having a conversation with basketball coach Rick Barnes. It was heartfelt, but not something that would produce a memorable photo. So most photographers and videographers drifted away.
But Paciorka decided to hang around for a few more seconds. Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw Heupel barreling toward Vitello. He lifted Vitello off the ground in a bear hug.
The traditional view of such a scene would focus on Vitello. Instead, Paciorka’s photo captured Heupel’s face over Vitello’s shoulder and showed the sincere joy he had for his fellow coach.
When an iPhone broke up reporter’s perfect game
The celebration immediately after a team wins a championship creates a chaotic scene, and that was certainly the case at Charles Schwab Field.
Knox News reporter Mike Wilson kept his wits and met the challenge. His initial story about the victory was published seconds after the final out was made.
And he was on the field taking notes, conducting interviews, shooting videos and documenting what he saw for countless stories he wrote in the hours and days afterward.
But no reporter is perfect, and they’re sometimes only as good as their technology.
When Tony Vitello sprinted toward the stands, Wilson followed with his iPhone pointed at the coach’s back. He knew something memorable was about to happen.
Vitello then dove into the sea of UT fans to celebrate. Wilson aimed his phone and got the video of the whole scene.
“I was stoked,” Wilson said. “I knew that video was gold.”
But when he checked the playback, he discovered he recorded the video in time-lapse mode. It had crunched the entire scene into only one second of video.
It was perhaps Wilson’s only error of the CWS, where he produced a jaw-dropping amount of coverage that will certainly earn sports writing awards at year’s end and will live on for posterity.
How fan shared title with the father he lost
Brett Edgerton’s day job is senior director of ESPN’s social media, and he worked in that role during most of the College World Series.
But he’s also a UT graduate and lifelong Vols fan. So he spent the finals off the clock, cheering his beloved alma mater while surrounded by college buddies in the standing-room-only area above section 118.
It was an emotional rollercoaster for Edgerton. His father, Rob Edgerton, played baseball for UT in the 1970s and died of cancer in 2008. This would’ve been one of the greatest father-son moments for the Edgertons.
So Rob brought his dad’s black-and-white UT player photo in his pocket to Omaha. He held it firmly in his hands for the final innings of Game 3.
“It might sound corny, but it was my little way of having him there with me while I watched this title run,” Brett Edgerton said. “So once UT took a 6-1 lead in the seventh, I decided to take out the pic and place it on the table we were leaning on.
“I wanted to give him a view of his beloved Vols if they were really going to do something no team in program history had ever done.”
After the final out, Rob kissed his dad’s photo. He posted a video of that celebration on X, formerly known as Twitter, with a simple message: “We did it, dad!”
Proud editor enjoyed the ride from online to print
Phil Kaplan, the longtime Knox News sports editor and South Region sports director, has seen it all in sports journalism. The self-described “ink-stained wretch” started his newspaper career in 1984, writing stories on a typewriter.
He oversaw coverage of several UT national championships, including football in 1998 and numerous Lady Vols NCAA titles. But most of those came in an era of print coverage.
This national title run was blanketed by digital coverage. Knox News and the USA TODAY Network produced 172 stories, 20 videos and 10 photo galleries about UT’s College World Series run in Omaha.
And much more coverage followed once the Vols returned to Knoxville.
“Things have changed. The online experience is much richer. And it was this time around,” Kaplan said.
But a heartening thing happened in the aftermath of the victory. UT fans from around the country sought copies of Knox News print editions as a keepsake of the national title.
Editions were reprinted to meet the demand, and multiple commemorative sections were produced. Readers lined up at the Knox News office to get their hands on a copy.
“To see the print requests for a single newspaper after Tennessee’s victory in CWS is quite astounding and at the same time rewarding,” Kaplan said.
Knox News reporter Mike Wilson contributed to this report. Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email [email protected]. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.
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Publish date : 2024-07-08 04:55:14
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