Editor's Note: Details in this article are based on newspaper accounts from the 1951 College World Series.

OMAHA, Neb. — Sid Hatfield wasn’t listed on Tennessee’s roster as a pitcher.

In the Vols' College World Series run at Omaha Municipal Stadium in June 1951, coach S.W. “Cy” Anderson made him one.

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It was a move that led Tennessee to its first-ever CWS finale, earned Hatfield the Most Outstanding Player of the series and brought it within a breath of a national championship.

Hatfield gave up hits in the Vols' final game against Oklahoma, but the first baseman-turned-pitcher on the biggest stage of his career to that point held the heavily-favored Sooners scoreless for five innings before their breakthrough in the sixth.

Oklahoma scored three runs over the last three innings to overcome a deficit and beat upstart Tennessee, 3-2. It took the Vols 73 years to get back there, but they’ll play for the program’s first CWS title in a best-of-three series against Texas A&M at Charles Schwab Field this weekend.

These Vols (58-12) are where they expected to be, following up an SEC regular season and tournament championship campaign with a convincing trek to the CWS finals, paved with a come-from-behind walk-off victory over Florida State and two wins against North Carolina and the Seminoles again that never felt particularly close.

As for Tennessee's 1951 team, that five-day stretch came as more of a surprise.

Tennessee's run was nearly over before it began.

The Vols won 16 games in the regular season, including 15-straight against an SEC-only schedule, winning the the league and District III. That Tennessee roster featured all-conference Hatfield, Herky Payne, Bert Rechichar, Andy Anderson and B.B. Hopkins, who would become the program's first All-American two years later.

In the days before a regional and super regional format, that was enough to get Tennessee to Omaha, but the Vols were not considered among the favorites. That didn't stop Robert Neyland from attending. The Tennessee football head coach and athletic director even threw the first pitch on the opening day.

"Next to last season's football team, this Tennessee club in the College World Series is providing my biggest thrill," Neyland told reporters.

The Vols' welcoming committee to Omaha included a band and "the school's sweetheart Mary Jane O'Neil of Omaha," according to the Knoxville News-Sentinel on June 10, 1951.

Tennessee had made it, but Southern California and Texas A&M had the best odds of the eight-team field to win the national championship. The Vols were tabbed by most newspapers as a "darkhorse" team that could potentially put together a run.

One game in, that run was on the brink.

Pitcher John Huffstetler, who went 8-0 during the regular season, tossed eight strikeouts in the Vols' opening game against Utah, but Tennessee mustered just four hits in a 7-1 loss.

The Vols needed to win four games in three days through the losers bracket with a razor thin margin for error. They responded the next day against Princeton, eliminating the Tigers and then shutting out Springfield College behind Hatfield's pitching a day later.

A rematch with Utah was set.

Under the headline, "Vols Surprise," Robert Phipps of the Omaha World-Herald wrote that Tennessee had been "rated weaker than Utah," but the Vols exacted their revenge the second time.

Don Price's two-run home run drew the Utes even with Tennessee in the eighth inning, but the Vols were "equal to it," Phipps wrote. Bill Asbury led off the ninth with a single, then Hopkins was intentionally walked.

In the next at-bat, Hatfield smacked a ball towards first base, missing the outstretched glove of the first baseman and screaming into left field to push the Vols to a walk-off victory and within one game of the CWS finals.

Standing in Tennessee's way was CWS favorite Southern California, which had won its first title just three years prior in 1948. The Vols were going to need to pull off two upsets in a matter of hours.

Early against the Trojans, Tennessee looked the part of a team fatigued.

Southern California led 6-2 just a few innings in, but the Vols rallied.

Billy Bowman was hardly warm when he was called out of the bullpen to replace starter John Huffstetler. Bowman gave up a triple against the first batter he faced, but proved to be the answer to the Trojans lineup.

Tennessee's own offense sprung to life in the fourth, beginning with Payne's 380-foot homer that "cleared the bleachers outside the left-field fence," according to Phipps' account.

The Vols had clawed their way back to tie the game that inning. Then Asbury stepped up to the plate in the sixth.

Asbury, who helped keep Tennessee's season alive earlier that day, drove a ball to left. Hal Charnofsky dove for it, attempting to make a shoe string catch that could have potentially turned momentum back in the favor of Southern California.

The ball "rolled through him to the fence," and Asbury cleared the bases for the Vols' first lead. It was the only inside-the-park home run of the 1951 CWS.

The Trojans had the tying run on first in the ninth, but Tennessee catcher Andy Anderson noticed Bob Lillis' long lead off of first base. By the time Lillis had made up his mind to try and steal second, Anderson darted a throw, getting Lillis "out by a hair."

Bowman slammed the door on Southern California for good to secure a 9-8 win and continue an improbable run. The Vols, overlooked coming into the week, would play for the national championship.

"The low-rated team from Tennessee handed the College World Series a double surprise Saturday," the Omaha World-Herald read the following morning.

A Tennessee team has never looked as poised for a national championship than this one.

Tony Vitello has the Vols back in the CWS for the third time in four years, but this team is on the threshold of ending nearly two weeks in Omaha with a trophy.

After losing to Oklahoma in the final in 1951, Tennessee didn't return to the CWS until 1995. There were a few trips sprinkled in over the next 25 years but Vitello has made the Vols a mainstay.

Tennessee has already accomplished a number of firsts this time around, becoming the first in the program's 127 years of existence to win its first two games at the CWS and the first No. 1 overall seed to reach the finals since UCLA did it 2013.

The win over Florida State in their CWS opener after trailing by four or more runs twice and getting the game-tying and winning runs down to their last out was shades of the Vols' 1951 team.

Tennessee has proven it can win close games. It's proven it can win dominantly, too—both recipes for hoisting a trophy either Sunday or Monday night.

Great players help and the Vols have plenty of them. But the driving force behind this run has been a coach that knows when to follow his players.

"We always say before something happens, something happens," Vitello said. "There's been a lot of build-up into the success we've had this year and the failures, too. It's been fun to be a part of it. "As far as my emotions, I'm kind of at the point where I'm just following these guys.

"There are certain tasks I have to do, and there's direction I give them, and they'll listen. But kind of following them right now. Makes it nice."

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