The victorious Volunteers returned to Voluncheers on Tuesday afternoon as the flight carrying the University of Tennessee baseball team home from their national championship win in Omaha, Nebraska, touched down at McGhee Tyson Airport.
The team disembarked from their plane at the private Signature Air terminal to board buses that took them to Lyndsey Nelson Stadium and then from there on to the championship parade through downtown Knoxville that ended in a widely televised celebration in Market Square.
Tuesday’s parade and national championship celebration were streamed live on SEC Network+ and the Tennessee Athletics YouTube channel.
The Volunteers defeated Texas A&M, 6-5, late Monday night with a celebration of the baseball program’s first national championship that tipped the thin line into Tuesday morning. It was UT’s first visit to the finals of the College World Series in 73 years, when the 1951 team reached the finals the second year Omaha hosted the CWS and fell to Oklahoma, 3-2.
“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,” UT skipper Tony Vitello said early Tuesday morning. “But that was our niche. We got to play with some attitude. We got to 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.”
The attitude carried Tennessee to the title and breaking the curse of the No. 1 seed that had settled into place. The NCAA began seeding teams in the baseball tournament in 1999. Until Monday night, Miami’s 1999 championship was the only time the tournament No. 1 seed went on to win the championship.
“You and your Vols have broken the curse of the No. 1 seeds,” said Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon as she officially proclaimed Tuesday at University of Tennessee Baseball Day in Knoxville.
The Vols were met by a sea of Orange & White lining Gay Street that required the police escort to stop and coax fans back to the sides to allow the team buses, also preceded by Knoxville Pipe & Drums, to continue. The team was followed by Smokey and the UT cheerleaders riding a giant Food City shopping cart. A convertible carrying Coach Vitello followed with a string of pickup trucks carrying the Vols to the orange carpet marking the way to the stage in Market Square. Players and coaches signed multiple autographs handed up from the crowd along the route.
“We have the best baseball coach in the country, Tony what you’ve done is unbelievable,” UT athletic director Danny White said. “The best is yet to come for Tennessee baseball. The best is yet to come for Tennessee athletics.”
Thousands wanted to see these Vols (60-13), just the fourth team and third program to win the Southeastern Conference regular season title, the SEC Tournament title and the CWS in the same season, joining Vanderbilt in 2019 and LSU in 1993 and 2009.
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