Mark WiedmerATHENS, Tenn. – With police sirens blaring and more than 100 fans waving blue-and-white victory towels provided for free by the school, the Tennessee Wesleyan University baseball team arrived home to a champion’s welcome at 8:02 Saturday evening, the conquering heroes of the NAIA World Series ready to celebrate the school’s second baseball national championship in eight years.
“I’ve carried three trophies this year,” senior Addison Adams said as he exited the bus holding the large wood trophy high above his head. “This one’s easily the heaviest, and the best.”
This might be the best sports story of the year, if only for the bus rider who threw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to Friday’s Series-clinching win – 8-year-old Neyland Pickel.
Pickel Power has been on the side of the Bulldogs all season, as the three-time cancer patient was made an honorary member of the team last fall, just before he underwent his second bone marrow transplant in three years at Vanderbilt.
To understand what young Pickel means to the Bulldogs, give a listen to Wesleyan coach Billy Berry.