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O’Gara: Why Sunday night’s win vs. UNC was the ‘this runs through us’ moment top-seeded Tennessee needed
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The drama came after the 5th inning when home plate umpire Kellen Levy reportedly left the game with a concussion.
At the time, that felt like the only thing that could slow down Tennessee starter Drew Beam, who carved up the UNC lineup in the first 5 innings. To that point, Beam faced 3 more than the minimum with 1 base hit and 2 walks surrendered.
After a lengthy delay, Beam didn’t seem to have the same command. Three consecutive hits, including a no-doubter solo home run by UNC slugger Vance Honeycutt, chased Beam with 2 men on with the Vols clinging to a 3-run lead.
But just as he’s done countless times, mustached-southpaw Kirby Connell ended the drama for the Vols.
A first-pitch swinging fielders’ choice, a pickoff of the runner on first with elite patience and poise on the throw from Blake Burke and a strikeout silenced the UNC threat for good.
A relatively drama-free, 6-1 win to earn a College World Series semifinal spot was exactly what the doctor ordered for Tennessee. Whatever sort of Omaha cloud that might’ve hovered over the Vols should be a distant memory. One win separates them from reaching the College World Series finals.
Mind you, that drama-free win came at the expense of a UNC team that had 3 walk-off wins in the NCAA Tournament alone. Tennessee, on the other hand, opened the College World Series with its first walk-off win of the season in a wild 12-11 comeback thriller against Florida State. If things had gotten tight late on Sunday, it would’ve been fair to say the 4-seed Tar Heels had more experience in those moments than the powerhouse Vols.
But that never happened. Instead, Tennessee had arguably its most flex-worthy moment of the postseason.
Sunday night’s win won’t be debated until the end of time like the FSU win, which still has Seminole fans irate that Burke wasn’t called out on strikes for his check swing.
(I hope they weren’t watching late on Sunday night because Burke got called out on an attempt that wouldn’t even qualify as a check swing.)
Nah. That wasn’t like that, nor was that an all-or-nothing Super Regional game against Evansville, wherein the Vols dominated to punch their ticket to Omaha. That game, while drama-free, was still not quite flex-worthy because of the circumstances with Evansville forcing the decisive Game 3 by stunning Tennessee in Game 2. Even Game 1 against Evansville — when the Vols won by the same 5-run margin — felt different because they needed a crooked number in the 7th inning to get any breathing room.
Sunday night didn’t feel like that. It felt like a team that was ready to get that all-important semifinal ticket punched at 2-0.
No, there wasn’t some historic cycle by Christian Moore like there was on Friday night. Ideally, the Vols’ potent lineup would’ve put something together the first time through the order, but a 3-run blast by Kavares Tears in the 4th inning would still qualify as “early,” and more important, “timely.”
KAVARES TEARS HOMERS AGAIN IN OMAHA‼️@Vol_Baseball | #MCWS pic.twitter.com/9iXyX4CpUt
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) June 17, 2024
Relatively limited offense or not, Sunday’s win was far cleaner than Friday’s. Against FSU, the Vols walked 9, had a hit-by-pitch and committed 3 errors (it seemed like more). Against UNC, the Vols walked 4, didn’t have a hit-by-pitch and didn’t commit an error.
The defensive turnaround was massive. In addition to Burke’s assist on Connell’s pickoff, the lefty also made a highlight-reel pick on a remarkable throw from Moore on the move. The play of the night was Hunter Ensley racing down a ball deep in center field.
UNREAL CATCH BY HUNTER ENSLEY pic.twitter.com/8oE3eNNO3V
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 16, 2024
Unreal, indeed.
Unfortunately, Vitello later pulled the center fielder after he appeared to be walking with a bit of a limp. It remains to be seen what his status will be later in the week.
The good news? The Vols earned 2 days off by getting those first 2 out of the way. That’s something they haven’t done since they were national runners-up in 1951. It’ll be their first time in the semifinal round since 2001, though they were 2 wins short of knocking off Miami to reach the College World Series final.
It’s Miami that the Vols are probably sick of hearing about. As in, 1999 Miami, AKA the last No. 1 overall seed to win a national title. Tennessee just became the 5th No. 1 overall seed since that 1999 Miami squad to start 2-0. Two of those teams (2023 Wake Forest and 2007 Oregon State) lost their next 2 games and failed to play for a national title. The other 2 (2009 Texas and 2004 Texas) both reached the CWS final, but … yeah. You get it.
For now, Vitello and Co. can put history on the back burner. More pressing will be how he manages his pitching staff with a bevy of options to turn to, most notably veteran lefty Zander Sechrist, who closed out the Super Regional a week earlier. To be determined on that.
Two days off is considered a “lengthy break” by Omaha standards. A lengthy break didn’t stand in the way of the Vols’ flexing their top-seeded muscles on Sunday night.
It’ll take much more than that to slow down this inevitable version of Tennessee.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
