OMAHA, Neb. – Tennessee made history on Monday night.
The Volunteers defeated Texas A&M 6-5 in the decisive Game 3 at Charles Schwab Field to win the program’s first-ever national title.
The Volunteers join Miami as the only teams to win the national championship as the No. 1 overall seed. Miami achieved this feat in 1999, the inaugural year of the tournament’s current format.
“No better team to win for the University of Tennessee than a bunch of guys who were truly the definition of a team,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said. “And no better play for our program to, I think, be the winning run on that slide, a guy that’s just built with a ton of grit. And his teammates follow his leadership. it’s a great example of how this group got things done.”
Tennesse sophomore outfielder Dylan Dreiling earned the award for Most Outstanding Player. He hit a home run in each of the three College World Series championship series games, and ironically, each home run came in the seventh inning.
In the College World Series, Dreiling, a potential early-round pick in July’s MLB draft, hit .542 with three home runs, 11 RBIs and six runs scored.
On Monday, Dreiling hit a two-run home run to right field to give the Volunteers an important 5-1 advantage.
“I kind of blacked out again in that moment,” Dreiling said. “I know first pitch, I overswung on a heater way up. And then I kind of just told myself, I said, ‘Just see the ball deep and just put a good swing on something.’ He threw me a change-up over the middle, and I just almost tried to be late on it to stay back and put a good swing on it.”
Postgame Reactions
Senior left-handed pitcher Zander Sechrist on Tony Vitello’s ability to build Tennessee into a national championship winner:
“The man’s like a father figure, to be honest. I was blessed enough to have him recruit me. Growing up in a single-mother household and talking to this man mostly every day and every week, he was just like a father figure to me.
“I went on my recruiting visits, and I bought a hat here in the alumni Vol shop. I go back home and I realize that out of all the recruiting visits, the only thing I bought was a Tennessee hat.
“It just felt like home. I’m glad that we finally, finally got it done. I couldn’t be more happier for this program and the way it’s been built. And I see Danny White back there, so I’m going to put it out there: I hope there’s a lifetime contract coming soon for Coach Vitello.”
Tony Vitello on building a gritty program capable of winning a title:
“We kind of had a theme going there that we needed to find a way to make this thing work. And that freight train got going, and it never really slowed down until it really got out of control, to be honest with you.
“But that was our niche. We got to play with some attitude. We gotta play with some grit. And we’re going to have to get some guys that maybe don’t want to say yes to a school with a better-winning record than us. And guys like that, like C-Mo and some others with some attitude, have done a lot for this program.”
Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle on Tennessee winning the national championship:
“First of all, congratulations to the University of Tennessee. What an awesome, awesome team. Great series. 60 wins, wow. Congratulations to Danny White, Tony and his staff, Josh, one of my players, excited for him.
“Great series. Same number of hits. Same number of errors. Probably the difference in the ball game was timely hits andsome of their hits were homers and ours weren’t. But we got the tying run to the plate in the ninth, which I knew we would regardless of the score. It’s a tough to swallow. Even when you make it this far. Everybody wants to win their last game.”
Dan Zielinski III has covered the MLB draft for nine years. He has interviewed 518 of the top draft prospects in that period, including four No. 1 overall picks. Multiple publications, including Baseball America, USA Today, MLB.com, The Arizona Republic and The Dallas Morning News, have quoted his work, while he has appeared on radio stations as a “MLB draft expert.” Follow him on Twitter @DanZielinski3.
