Nobody has a larger gap from its most recent appearance at the College World Series in this year’s field than Tennessee, but the Volunteers are hardly playing the Cinderella role in Sunday afternoon’s contest against Virginia.
The Cavaliers have made five of the past 12 CWS fields and won the 2015 national championship, but this season’s team was anything but a title contender with an 11-13 record entering April. Even more recently, when Tennessee was adding to its shining 50-16 season with five consecutive NCAA tournament wins, Virginia was constantly residing on death’s door, losing its opening game in the regional and super regional.
Virginia arrived in Omaha, Nebraska, having won six consecutive elimination games and has the worst record in the elite field at 35-25.
“I think, like our club, they’ve got some personality to them,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said this past week on a Zoom call. “Their coaching staff has been together for quite some time. They know how to navigate their way through tough times of the season, and then also how to build up their team toward playing your best in May. That’s what we all want, and it’s what we say, but if we could sell that and do it every year, you’d make more than a million bucks.
“It’s a challenge to do that, but they found a way to play their best ball at the end, and, like our team, they’ve got a balanced attack.”