The Lindsey Nelson Stadium public address announcer asked Tennessee fans to safely start filing out of the stadium. Then he asked again. And again. Tennessee fans refused to listen and answered only with a few boos and louder cheers after Vol players began pumping up the crowd in right field.
For a fanbase that has been tormented and seen an abundance of disappointment over the past decade plus, there wasn’t a chance anyone was going to leave after Drew Gilbert hit a walk off grand slam on a 0-1 pitch that cleared the right field wall by at least 50 feet to give the Big Orange a come from behind, 9-8 win, in the Knoxville Regional opener.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a good feeling,” Gilbert said. “I think all that kind of stems from having our teammates all year trying to have each other’s back. In a big situation like that, you can’t let your mind race to a bunch of different places. I just tried to let my mind shut off and just react, and I know my teammates got my back and I tried to have theirs there.”
After a Tyler Black long fly ball went off Jordan Beck’s glove and into the Tennessee bullpen for a two-run home run that gave Wright State a 2-0 lead it was easy for Vol fans to think “here we go again” with another big moment failure.
Tennessee quieted those concerns by scoring five combined runs in the second and third inning to take a 5-2 lead but Wright State wouldn’t go down without a fight
The Raiders proved their offense was legit and not just a product of Horizon League pitching, tallying five total home runs on the night with the second coming right after Tennessee’s four-run third inning. It was immediately and abundantly clear that Wright State wouldn’t go away and that Tennessee would need more than five runs to earn the regional opener victory.
Tennessee struggled to provide that run insurance, the Vols had leadoff doubles in the fifth and sixth inning and a one-out double in the fourth inning. Each time Tennessee failed to capitalize and bring the runner home as the Vols hit 1-of-9 with runners in-scoring position prior to Gilbert’s walk off.
As Tennessee failed to keep the Raiders at an arm’s length, Quincy Hamilton threw a gut punch to the 3,951 people at Lindsey Nelson Stadium as he took Sean Hunley deep for a three-run homer that put Wright State ahead 7-5.
The Vols seemed dead afterwards. Tennessee didn’t tally a hit in the seventh or eighth inning while Wright State added an insurance run in the eighth inning and had another runner reach base on a Tennessee error.
“I don’t think our guys were rattled,” Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello said. “The fans were actually on us, staying in it. You’ve got to play the hand you’re dealt, and in that situation, Alders put a good swing on a slider and you realize now you are down an extra run. If anything, from my standpoint, Sean Hunley has got us out of so many jams, and he did so in this game. You kind of let your personal emotions get involved, and we asked him to do a ton today—a little out of the norm. So, you just hate for the kid not to have personal success. I think there was a sense of calm, quiet confidence in our dugout. It’s like, ‘Ok, it’s a bit bigger challenge,’ but it is kind of what we have been dealing with since Connor Pavolony showed up on our campus as well as our coaching staff.”
In a season that has provided Tennessee fans a decades worth of crazy and improbable wins, with a situation that looked as dire as any— both in the short term of earning a come from behind victory and in the long term of finding away out of its own regional— but Vitello’s Vols found away again.
After being quieted after Hamilton’s bomb in the seventh inning, Lindsey Nelson Stadium generated energy with everyone in attendance on its feet cheering from the time Connor Pavolony stepped in the batter’s box to open the inning.
Pavolony singled, Liam Spence lined out to right field, Max Ferguson singled and Jake Rucker walked to load the bases and set the stage for Gilbert.
Gilbert, who Vitello has called a “mad man” and signed with Tennessee in the summer after his senior year after being released from his LOI to Oregon State, smashed an 0-1 pitch over the right field wall to send Tennessee into the winner’s bracket against Liberty Saturday.
In a season of unbelievable and improbable victories, Tennessee saved its most unlikely win yet for the season’s biggest moment to date.
“A lot of challenges and quirky things have happened this year,” Vitello said. “And things have happened that I can’t explain that people have asked me to. These guys—as Drew alluded to—if the going gets tough, they get tough. And if they get punched in the mouth, then they get even a little bit tougher."
