OMAHA, Neb— Tennessee got to the College World Series for the first time in 16 years by grinding out at-bats, timely home runs and a pitching staff that pounded the strike zone and let its defense work behind them.
On Tuesday, Texas eliminated Tennessee from the College World Series with a 8-4 victory— doing many of the same things that got the Vols back to the sports biggest stage.
Blade Tidwell had been great the last six weeks and turned in his first poor start since April 26 against Texas A&M today. The freshman didn’t give up a ton of damage, allowing just two hits, but Tidwell had to labor for every out and surrendered lead off walks in both the second and third inning.
“I think Blade was throwing the ball all right,” Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello said. “They were on him for whatever reason. I think he was getting frustrated about certain things. And then a third thing was there was just a handful of pitches where he didn't have the conviction that I've seen out of him in the past few weeks.”
The costly moment came in the second inning when Tidwell got a huge one-out strikeout with runners on second and third. Then facing Eric Kennedy, Tidwell threw one too many fastballs over the plate and Kennedy roped the 3-2 pitch into the Tennessee bullpen to give the Longhorns an early 3-2 lead.
“I think in both situations the big thing was we were one pitch away from getting out of two innings that a lot of damage was done,” Vitello said postgame. “And we threw it over the plate, which is what got us here. They were able to put a couple of good swings on balls.”
Unlike Sunday’s opener to Virginia, Tennessee’s offense showed some life, tying the game with two runs in the fourth inning thanks to RBI hits from Connor Pavolony and Liam Spence.
While Tennessee stranded the bases loaded with nobody out in the third inning thanks to a hard hit Drew Gilbert 5-2-3 double play. Still, the Vols were much better with runners on base, going 5-for-9 with runners in-scoring position.
After tying the game in the top half of the fourth inning Tennessee turned to senior reliever Sean Hunley in the bottom half.
Hunley— who had walked 11 batters all season entering the game— walked a pair of Longhorns around a strikeout to give Texas two on with one-out. On the second walk, Tennessee volunteer assistant coach Ross Kivett was ejected leading to an outburst from a plethora of the Vols in the dugout— most of all Kivett.
Hunley got a strikeout for out number two and brought the Tennessee fans at T.D. Ameritrade Park to their feet. Hunley got ahead of Silas Ardoin 1-2 before the catcher poked a ball into the right centerfield gap. Jordan Beck was playing in, making his angle much tougher but the sophomore was still able to cut off the ball and hold Ardoin to a single.
Still, Texas sent Mitchell Daly home from first and Ferguson’s relay throw was excellent, beating him to the plate. A lackadaisical tag from Connor Pavolony allowed Daly to get under the tag on first look. After review it was clear Daly was out but the replay booth confirmed the call.
“Well, I thought it was a really clean relay,” Vitello said. “Jordan Beck got over there in a hurry. Got it to our infielders. They make a clean throw. Pav makes a clean tag. So you kind of anticipated the thing being an out. Unfortunately, we've got replay in the dugout, and I think you're better off as a team or coaches not seeing that stuff when they throw it up on the scoreboard or in the corner. But obviously it's one more run. I don't have a scale to weigh how much of a punch in the gut that was to our guys or how much of a detriment that was, other than just what was on the scoreboard. But 5-4 is different than 6-4.”
“It was still pretty early in the game,” Derkay said. “I wouldn't say it was just kind of like, okay, because one thing Coach Vitello has always told us with these reviews, it can go one way or the other. Whatever they tell us, out or safe, that's what we have to roll with. That's what we were going off of at that moment in time. And, yeah, that was it.”
One batters later, Cam Williams singled to give Texas a 7-4 lead it wouldn’t relinquish and that would run Hunley from the game.
Texas would record more runs than hits— something Tennessee frequently did this season— while reaching base on balls six times.
The Longhorns capitalized on some defensive mistakes from Tennessee, scoring a run on a Pavolony error in the second inning and adding an insurance run in the sixth on a wild pitch.
On the other side, Tennessee recorded just three walks, all coming after the fourth inning.
A Tennessee team that you couldn't count out all season just didn’t have any tank left in the gas late as the Vols offense wouldn’t threaten again with Texas reliever Tanner Witt turned in 5.2 scoreless innings, allowing just two baserunners.
A disappointing finish to the season still takes nothing away from a magical ride that Tony Vitello and his squad gave Vol Nation. What comes next is to be determined but this senior class and the juniors who will leave for professional baseball can hang their hats on knowing they left the program better than they found it.
“Hasn't always been smooth sailing throughout these five years,” redshirt senior Pete Derkay said postgame. “And without them, I don't know what I would do, especially that group of seniors. I mean they're some of my best friends, people that will be in my life for many years to come. I just want to say thank you to them and that I love them. But with the younger guys, too, especially getting to experience this, you want more of it. And when we made it to the Regional in 2019 and got eliminated from that, we knew we wanted more to get here was great but if I had one more year, I want more. So for them it's just keep staying the course with everything and keep putting in the work that got us here this go-around and to keep doing that, I think Tennessee baseball will be a force to be reckoned with next year. And you could see us back here again.”
