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Ryan McGee is a senior writer at ESPN
OMAHA, Neb. – Texas A&M and Tennessee have waited 73 years to finally win a Men’s College World Series championship. So, what is another day? A day when this year’s series could have ended in celebration for the Aggies instead ended with a 1-1 lead that was pushed to the deciding third game on Monday night, thanks to a late push for a 4-1 win over the top-seeded Vols.
“I think you’ll get through in two games, that would be great,” Texas A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagel admitted with a smile. “But now we have to play. We don’t have to play. We have to play, in the last college baseball game of the season, and that’s great.”
“No trophies, rings or belts were given out today,” Tennessee State’s Tony Vitiello said. “But what we’re getting is another opportunity to play another game with this team, and it just so happens that it’s going to be for the national championship.”
In the stadium tunnel outside the room where the two head coaches held a news conference, their teams’ paths crossed in the concourse, the Aggies were waiting to board their bus, and the Volunteers exited the field after their own post-win Q&A. The SEC rivals, dressed in sweat-stained uniforms and with black eyes smudged messily across their faces, shook hands and nodded to each other to acknowledge the shared experience.
One player shouted at the others, “Guys in the arena! I don’t know about y’all, but I’m exhausted!”
Diamonds are created using pressure, tension and heat, and although there were no diamonds awarded on the Men’s College World Series diamond Sunday afternoon, there was certainly a Nebraska-sized excess of pressure, tension and heat. A game in which the score was 1-0 for more than six innings. A standing room only crowd of 25,987 people crawled and climbed into every corner of Charles Schwab Stadium providing even a modicum of visibility. All in the furnace of a clear Omaha afternoon, with an air temperature of 90 degrees, humidity of 80%, and field conditions that look as if those numbers have been multiplied by two.
The whole day was played through the mirror and under its heat. Texas A&M’s depleted pitching staff (“It’s going to take a village,” Schlossnagel said entering the weekend) kept Tennessee’s vicious offense at bay. At one point, the Vols’ bats were a brutal 0-for-16 with runners on base and 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. The Aggies were able to protect a 1-0 lead established by a solo homer in the first inning via a series of high-flying defensive plays. The most memorable and terrifying moment was questionable slow throws to empty the glove from second baseman Cayden Kent, who was pushed to first base to reach half a shoelace ahead of the runner, stranding three Vols on the base.
But when Tennessee finally achieved that 1-for-17 stat, it was a very big orange “1” in the form of a homer from left fielder Dylan Dreiling. It was the first time A&M, previously undefeated in the NCAA Tournament, trailed by a game in this year’s MCWS, and never regained the lead. As in the contest though, the Aggies had the potential to win the game on the deck with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, only to end the game with runners on the corners, who were left hanging after a 372-foot warning fly ball. Also hanging, likely slowed by winds that suddenly blew in from Iowa.
“We live by the idea of one game at a time, one inning at a time, and I think we do a great job of that,” said A&M’s Chris Cortese, who kept Tennessee at bay for more than that. From four innings in the middle of the match. “But it’s impossible not to feel that tension, especially since the score at 1-0 hasn’t changed for a long time. It feels like something has to give in. And it did.”
“There were a few times where it was like, ‘Hey, we need to relax or change the mood a little bit,’” Vitiello agreed. “Those tense things that have probably come up once or twice since we’ve been here, they’re clearly not working.”
A few minutes later, as the coach got off the podium and headed off to join his team, he added: “But you can really feel that tension, can’t you? Like in the whole stadium.”
That was true. The stroll through the crowded grandstand brought with it an eerie silence, the stadium organ and occasional cheering more prominent than usual. Even as Tennessee rushed onto the field to celebrate the win, the roar that rose was short-lived.
It’s understandable. There is still work to be done, and no one knows that better than those wearing the big burgundy or orange. Neither program has won a national baseball title. They made their MCWS debut in 1951, as A&M came home early and Tennessee suffered an upset loss in the title game to Oklahoma. In the seven decades that followed, both endured years of baseball irrelevance, despite good budgets and even better high school talent in the state. Over the past decade, both have become powerful forces in baseball, but both have never competed in June.
In other words, extreme heat is nothing new in College Station or Knoxville.
“I was very much hoping to get everything done tonight,” Schlossnagel said, glancing involuntarily at the cards in his hand, no doubt already sorting out the availability of his promotional staff. He added: “But there is something that I think is poetic, about the season that starts in February and the postseason that started a month ago, and the players who have worked for this their whole lives, and all these years of our fans waiting for a chance to win it.” “It all comes down to Game 3 tomorrow.”
The intervening 26 hours will be filled with all those players looking for ways to stay free, those coaches sifting through stats, trends and pitch counts, and those fans on both sides having beer-filled discussions about it all.
“I left one of my Air Pods behind, so I only had one on (Friday night) and I could hear the party down the street, so it was hard to sleep last night,” Vitiello said with a laugh. “I’ll put both in. Just use the sound machine, brown noise instead of white noise for me personally. But yeah, you have to eat. You have to rest. I have friends and family.” In town, but I can’t enjoy Omaha tonight like they can “I think you’ve got to be a man, ’cause the team might be chomping at the bit to get back out there for the old-fashioned backyard baseball game.”
Every person is. After all, it’s been a long wait.
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