Tennessee’s fight will be rewarded with the 2024 College World Series title

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OMAHA, NEBRASKA – JUNE 24: The Tennessee Volunteers celebrate after defeating the Texas A&M Aggies to win the Division I Men’s Baseball Championship held at Charles Schwab Field on June 24, 2024 in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

Some national championships come as coronations, with teams advancing through the College World Series finals to the trophy presentation. However, some national championships are postponed; every clean sheet, every run fought for.

Tennessee had to fight for the national title in 2024. They won more games this season than any team in the last 22 years and collected every trophy they could. Yet it had to fight every step of the way.

Tennessee did not win the SEC regular season title until the final day of the season. It lost the opening game of the SEC tournament, forcing it to play through the losers bracket. It was forced into a Game 3 in super regionals by Evansville, the Cinderella of the NCAA Tournament. It lost the opening game of the CWS championship series to Texas A&M, pushing its back against the wall.

Even before this season it was a battle for the program. Tennessee made its third appearance in the CWS in the last four years, but went 0-2 in 2021 and 1-2 in 2023. In between, the 2022 team was the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament but was upset at home. by Notre Dame in super regionals.

So of course, Game 3 of the championship series on Monday wasn’t easy. Tennessee never trailed that night, thanks in part to a leadoff home run by Christian Moore. But every time it moved forward, A&M hit back. Even Tennessee’s points did not come easily, especially the sixth point, which proved decisive. On that play, Hunter Ensley had to make a last-minute adjustment to his dive into the plate to avoid being tagged.

But in the end, Tennessee found a way, just as it had all season long. The Volunteers defeated the Aggies 6-5 to win the first national championship in program history.

“There’s no better team to win for the University of Tennessee than a bunch of guys who were truly the definition of a team,” coach Tony Vitello said. “And there’s no better play for our program to be, I think, the winning run on that slide, a guy that’s just built with a ton of guts. His teammates follow his leadership and it is a great example of how this group got things done.”

This Tennessee team might be the best team in the history of college baseball. It finished the season 60-13 and set an SEC record for overall wins. It is the first team to win 60 games in a season since 2002 Florida State, and it has won more games than any national champion since 1989 Wichita State, which went 68-16 in a very different era of the sport. It won both the SEC regular season and tournament titles. It had one losing weekend all year and none since mid-March (which was also the only time it lost consecutive games all season). It was the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and the first No. 1 overall seed to win the national championship since Miami in 1999.

The Volunteers have star power at the heart of the team. American second baseman Christian Moore will be a first-round pick next month and could be a top-10 pick. Third baseman Billy Amick won’t have to wait much longer to hear his name. Left fielder Dylan Dreiling, the College World Series Most Outstanding Player, has been working his way up the draft boards. Right-hander Drew Beam and All-American first baseman Blake Burke will likely be second-round picks and go down as two of the best players at their positions in program history.

In short, there will be big leaguers from this team. But that was never the story of the 2024 Volunteers. In his six years in Knoxville, Vitello has had more talented teams during his tenure at Tennessee — just two years after the end of the 2022 season, that team already has three big leaguers and more to come.

What these volunteers mastered was the mix of talent and perseverance, an attitude Vitello has tried to instill since the day he was hired. When Vitello arrived in Tennessee in the summer of 2017, Tennessee was at the bottom of the SEC standings. It had made the SEC tournament just three times in the past decade and hadn’t made the NCAA tournament since 2005. The athletic department has a proud tradition, but the program needed a jolt.

Vitello was head coach for the first time. He knew Tennessee had to find an identity, a niche to make its own and compete in the tough SEC. At the time, Tennessee could not match the facilities of Arkansas or Mississippi State. It didn’t have the tradition of LSU. It couldn’t simply focus on domestic players like Florida or Texas A&M.

What Vitello chose to do was build a granular program that played with an edge. That tasked his staff, from assistant coaches Frank Anderson and Josh Elander, who have been with him throughout his tenure, to support staffers like Quentin Eberhardt, the program’s director of athletic performance. It also provided instructions for their efforts in recruitment and practice.

That attitude was on full display in the 2024 team, embodied in players like Ensley, Moore and lefthander Zander Sechrist, who started and won Monday’s game.

“We have to play with a certain attitude,” Vitello said. “We have to play with some courage. And we’re going to have to find some guys who might not want to say yes to a school with a better success record than us. Guys like that, like C-Mo and some others with a certain attitude, have done a lot for this program.”

That attitude, that perseverance caused Ensley to crash into the center field fence at full speed last Sunday to make a catch. He was shocked by the play and had to be replaced in midfield by Kavares Tears the next game. He too charged into the wall to make a catch.

“It’s the way I grew up, (with a) working-class family,” Ensley said. “My whole family is just tough. When I was growing up with them, that’s kind of what was preached. You show up every day, you work hard, you play hard, and if things don’t go your way, work harder and do better.

“It’s clear that in midfield I’m willing to run through a wall for this team. I would do it again a million times.”

The mentality instilled in the program is not just limited to courage or sharpness. The Volunteers were also a close-knit group who enjoyed playing together and for their coaches. That camaraderie carried through the roster and helped them get contributions from high and low on the roster.

Sechrist was such a player. A senior who makes his money on throwing ability and not pure stuff. He worked his way up the rotation and eventually became the team’s best pitcher. On Monday, he held A&M to one run in 5.1 innings. He struck out seven and worked around six hits and a walk. Tennessee won each of his last six starts and he pitched to a 1.34 ERA in that run, which began on the final day of the regular season against South Carolina.

Sechrist is one of the few players to have been on all three CWS teams over the past four years. He said the 2024 team stood out from all the teams he played for.

“We had unfinished business, especially since this was our third time here in the last four years,” he said. ”21 We didn’t do well. ’22 You could say this was the best college baseball team ever. ’23 We have had the experience of winning at least one match here, but the job was not done yet. And ’24 just felt a little different.

“I’m blessed today to have gotten the job done.”

Monday took a little bit of everything from the entire roster. Eight different players had at least one hit. Dreiling homered again, becoming the first player to homer in every game of a CWS final. Moore capped off one of the all-time greatest seasons in program history with a home run. Sechrist got off to another strong start and the bullpen held off a powerful, determined A&M lineup.

It ended with a raucous party that was just getting started. Vitello jumped into the stands to celebrate with the Tennessee fans. Peyton Manning came onto the field to soak up the atmosphere. Players hugged each other and made snow angels in confetti.

It was the perfect ending for a team that has fought for each other for five long months. Throughout the CWS, the volunteers talked about just wanting to savor the moments and enjoy their last few weeks together.

The volunteers certainly enjoyed it on Monday evening. As a result, they will forever be linked in Tennessee and university baseball history.