Tennessee's cycle, walk-off sets the stage for epic MCWS run (2024)

OMAHA, Neb. — It lasted 3 hours and 39 minutes, the Friday night hit-a-palooza when Tennessee dropped a piano on Florida State's heads in the Men's College World Series. But classics take time. Look at all that had to be squeezed into one extraordinary, memorable game. Look at what it took for the Vols to make new history, and for the Seminoles to be staring at the old.

If Tennessee is holding up the national championship trophy next week, we’ll know where the Vols began to truly sense their destiny. If Florida State is going home soon, doomed once more by the fates of Omaha, we’ll know where it all started to go wrong; the moment the scoreboard showed 12-11 Friday night, and there was no more game for the Seminoles to save.

Something the Florida State coach had said the day before echoed late Friday evening, louder even than the roar from the Tennessee masses who had just seen a victory drop from the Nebraska sky. “What you're going to see, I don't think we've ever seen it before. This Clash of the Titans, it's going to be exciting. People are looking forward to this,” Link Jarrett had said of the impending game between the No. 1 and No. 8 national seeds, two programs with 31 combined trips here but no titles. “This is top-of-the-food chain stuff.”

He was right. He just didn’t know how much it was going to hurt in his dugout when it was over. Maybe images from a long and raucous night in Charles Schwab Field will explain.

Here's Christian Moore, having just hit a ball halfway to Iowa. The TV shot of him in the Tennessee dugout shows his mouth agape. Someone was telling him he had just hit the first cycle in the College World Series in 68 years, and the second ever. “He had no clue. We didn’t want to tell him but I think he heard someone say it,” teammate Kavares Tears said.

“Really, to be honest, I didn't know I did it,” Moore would say later. “I was just so hyper-focused on winning and just that next task.” He had started with a triple, then a double, then a single, then a 440-foot iron shot over the wall in center.

"That's just this team, man. We're never gonna give up. We're always gonna fight."@Vol_Baseball walked it off in the bottom of the ninth AND @Moore10Chris hit for the cycle 🤯 He's with @michellachester after the game.#MCWS pic.twitter.com/DD9ByNdFcG

— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 15, 2024

“Honestly if I told you I was surprised I’d be lying,” teammate Blake Burke would say afterward. “That guy’s amazing.”

Jarrett thought so, too. “Clearly, just a tough night to face him. He was on everything.”

Here's another picture of Moore in the ninth inning, with two strikes against him. The Vols trail 11-9 with a runner on, so one more strike and they’re cooked. Notice how it looks as if Moore is saying half to himself after barely missing on a foul, “It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine.” Later he would say it was really “Let’s fight, let’s fight, let’s fight.” Either way, he hit another double on the seventh pitch he saw from reliever Brennen Oxford to keep the line moving.

“It's a battle. Me versus him, mano a mano,” he said. “And I guess I won that one.”

“He wants to win as bad as anyone I’ve ever been around,” his coach Tony Vitello said.

Here’s the replay of a Burke checked swing in the ninth with two outs and two strikes. Looks like he might have gone around. Strike three, game over, the No. 1 seed in trouble in the loser’s bracket. Except the umpire at third is spreading out his arms to show it was a ball. “I didn’t go,” Burke said later. But wasn’t he like, a little worried it might be called a strike?

“No.”

Anyway, two pitches later he singled up the middle to score two runs and tie the game.

TIE GAME! TIE GAME! TIE GAME!#MCWS x 🎥 ESPN / @Vol_Baseball pic.twitter.com/Dnrc4lk2eW

— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 15, 2024

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Here’s the entire Tennessee team rushing onto the field to swarm Dylan Dreiling, who had just singled to win the game. It was the fourth consecutive two-out hit for the Vols. Tennessee has won 56 times this season, often bludgeoning opponents into submission, but here was its first walk-off, accomplished by refusing to blink.

TENNESSEE STORMS BACK IN THE 9TH ‼️#MCWS x @Vol_Baseball pic.twitter.com/IFpfzOtnEB

— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 15, 2024

“We’re a gritty bunch. We typically don’t get that label,” Burke said. “We’re a gritty team and we showed that tonight.”

Burke talked about Thursday's two-strike drills at Tennessee, where, "we're in there battling against sliders, cutters, fastballs, everything to try to get us out."

Vitello was discussing the four-run ninth-inning rally and noted that he had “a bunch of dirt in my hands at one point. So I think I was the least composed out of that group. But I assure you that I was confident.”

And Moore mentioned how “We know all we have to do is pass the torch to the next person.”

Burke said of Tennessee’s philosophy, “We're just trying to win every pitch. We threw a bunch of jabs all game, and then threw that big punch in the ninth inning.”

Here’s the stricken look on Jarrett’s face. Yeah, he looked like he had just taken a UFC hook all right. Florida State had scored six runs in the third inning and led 9-4 in the fourth and had match point twice in the ninth.

“Walk in that locker room, (it’s) tough,” he said. “These guys have responded all year and they'll respond. I'm proud that you got to see flashes of what this team can do and is about. But ultimately that pendulum swung the other way in a hurry in the ninth inning.”

Florida State now must face Virginia and another loss ends its 24th MCWS with no title, the same way the other 23 ended. The Seminoles want it so, so badly to be different.

⏮️ RECAP:North Carolina's walk-off win over Virginia in Game 1 of MCWS

This is Charles Schwab Field, empty after a historic day. North Carolina over Virginia 3-2, Tennessee over Florida State 12-11. It’s the first time in the history of this event the first two games had been won with walk-off hits. It was also the Vols’ first walk-off win in Omaha since 1951, the first time a team had rallied from five runs down to win a MCWS game since they opened this place in 2011. And the first opening game win for the Vols here in 29 years.

Legendary start to the 2024 #MCWS! pic.twitter.com/W3x7RpoDkl

— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 15, 2024

“That's what this place is about,” Vitello said. “And it's why we get the crowds that we do here. It's why this sport has grown into what it is.”

In the end, Tennessee had sent a couple of messages. One, the Vols could survive a game even when they played sloppy defense with three early errors. “A hot mess," Vitello called it. “Doesn't have to be pretty this time of year, just gotta keep fighting."

“Sometimes when you compete you can cover up mistakes.”

And two, Charles Schwab Field’s reputation for holding scores down doesn’t count for much if the Tennessee lineup gets to swinging. The Vols had 18 hits. “We’ve hit in pitcher’s parks before,” Burke said.

Tennessee couldn’t be more confident after this. Then again, North Carolina just won its third walk-off of the tournament and believes it can do anything,

Now they have to play.