Mission Accomplished, Tennessee Is Now The King Of College Baseball After Winning National Championship

OMAHA, NE- If you didn’t like the Tennessee baseball team, I've got some bad news for you, it is now national champions after beating Texas A&M 6-5 on Monday night. 

For the first time in program history, Tennessee recorded the final out at the College World Series, and captured the national championship trophy. A dream scenario that administrators have been constantly thinking about since Tony Vitello stepped foot on the Vols campus six years ago has finally come to fruition. 

Heading into the third and decisive game of the College World Series, history pointed toward the Aggies breaking the hearts of Tennessee fans. There have been letdowns in basketball, football and plenty of other sports over the past two decades at the school. 

In fact, the common theme around the Vols male fan base was to always be wearing a cup for protection when it comes to getting their hopes up for on-field success. The lack of success brought hesitation to the fans, not knowing if they should fully buy-into another program that had the potential of letting them down. But one thing that this athletic department was missing over the years was the leadership of a coach like Tony Vitello. 

Tennessee is now the king of college baseball after winning national title

A guy who will throw-dirt into the dugout during an arguing session, just to rile his guys up. A coach that will get tossed from a game, but then show up outside the stadium to hold a lemonade sale while he was suspended. This has been years in the making, with a university that knows they have lightning in a bottle, and gave over 15,000 fans a reason to travel to Nebraska in the month of June. 

But none of this doesn't happen without players like Christian Moore, Drew Beam, Cal Stark or Blake Burke. It's one thing to have leadership on team, but it's another thing to have that grow over time. After losing game one of the College World Series final, Tennessee roared back to score seven runs over the past two games to secure the national championship. 

Tennessee is now the king of college baseball after winning national title

It was a Christian Moore home run that led-off Tennessee's batting in the first inning, while a player like Dylan Dreiling came up clutch once again with a sac-fly in the third-inning. This was followed by a Dean Curley single to left field that drove in another run, giving the Vols a 3-1 lead for starting pitcher Zander Sechrist to work. 

The Vols starter finished the night with seven strikeouts over 5.1 innings, doing enough on the mound to give the Vols enough room to keep its distance when the Aggies had a few runners on-base. 

But this night belonged to Dylan Dreiling, and the seventh inning was the perfect time for him to break this game open, with a bomb to right field. 

But this might not have even been the play of the night, as Hunter Ensley once again came up big for Tennessee, at a crucial time. In one of the crazier plays we have seen this season, outside of him running into the wall earlier in the College World Series, Ensley put the moves on Texas A&M catcher, Jackson Appel to score at the plate. 

Tennessee Is A Well-Deserved National Champion, Tony Vitello Is King

You can hate his antics, call him every name in the book, but you have to now call Tony Vitello a national championship coach, and that will piss-off a lot of people. What Vitello has done during his time leading up to this national championship will always be remembered as legendary. 

Tennessee can now claim a championship in baseball, fulfilling the goal of former athletic director John Currie when he had Vitello sign his contract in a Washington, D.C., airport. 

Everything was leading up to this moment, past teams included. If the Vols don't make the North Carolina regional in Vitello's second season in-charge, does this season happen? I don't know, but the foundation was laid during that trip in 2019. 

Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello went off on a postgame rant following the win over Evansville Via: NCAA

Tony Vitello is not worried about any personal accolades. This is about the team on the field tonight, and the previous ones that poured the concrete. 

It's been a long time coming for the Tennessee athletic department, winning a national championship in major sport, and it wasn't Rick Barnes, or any previous football coach that stepped foot on campus before Josh Heuepel. 

It was the head coach from St. Louis, Missouri who has done everything in his power to make baseball a must-see event in Tennessee, and around the country. 

For that, he will always have the hearts of fans clad in orange, and the hatred of every other fanbase he's coached against while wearing VOLS across his chest. 

Mission accomplished.