A surplus of tension the size of Nebraska: Tennessee, Texas A&M and a decisive Game 3 on deck

OMAHA, Neb. – Texas A&M and Tennessee waited 73 years to finally win a Men’s College World Series championship. So what’s another day? A day where this year’s series could have ended with an Aggies celebration ended with a 1-1 spurt that pushes things toward a deciding Game 3 Monday night, thanks to a late surge. round for a 4-1 victory by the top-seeded Vols.

“To think you’re going to do it in two games, that would be good,” Texas A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle said with a smile. “But now we get to play – we don’t have to play, we get to play – in the last college baseball game of the season, and it’s awesome.”

Tennessee’s Tony Vitello said: “No trophies, rings or belts were awarded today. But what we have is another chance to play one more game with this team, and it happens to be that it will be for a national championship.”

In the stadium tunnel just outside the room where the two head coaches were holding a press conference, their teams passed each other in the hallway, the Aggies waiting to board their bus, the Volunteers walking off the field after their own post-victory Q&A. The SEC rivals, dressed in sweat-stained uniforms and dark-eyed, smeared their faces, shook hands and nodded in acknowledgment of a shared experience.

One player shouted to the others: “Men in the arena!” I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted!

Diamonds are created using pressure, tension and heat, and while no diamonds were awarded on the Men’s College World Series diamond Sunday afternoon, there was certainly some extra pressure, tension and heat the size of Nebraska. A game that was held at 1-0 for more than six innings. A standing-room-only crowd of 25,987 had crawled and climbed into every corner of Charles Schwab Stadium, even offering a glimpse of the view. All in the oven on a cloudless afternoon in Omaha, with an air temperature of 90, humidity of 80 percent, and field conditions that made those numbers feel like they had doubled .

The whole day passed both through the mirror and under the heat of it. Texas A&M’s depleted pitching staff (“It’ll take a village,” Schlossnagle said early in the weekend) kept Tennessee’s supposedly vicious offense at bay. At one point, the Vols’ bats were a brutal 0 for 16 with runners on base and 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position. The Aggies had managed to protect a 1-0 lead generated by a solo homer in the first inning via a series of high-level defensive plays. The most poignant and memorable moment was a slow, soft, questionable throw from second baseman Kaeden Kent, emptying his gloves, shoveled to first base to arrive a half-lace in front of the runner, stranding three Steals on base.

But when Tennessee finally got to that 1-for-17 stat, it was a very Big Orange “1” in the form of a two-run homer from left fielder Dylan Dreiling. It was the first time A&M, previously undefeated in the NCAA Tournament, had trailed in a game in this year’s MCWS, and it never regained the lead. Characteristic of the contest, however, the Aggies had the potential to win the game on deck with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, only to end the game with runners on the corners left hanging after a 372-foot warning track flight . The ball was also hanging, probably slowed by the winds that were suddenly blowing from Iowa.

“We live by the idea of ​​one game at a time, one inning at a time, one game at a time, and I think we do a great job with that,” the pitcher said. A&M Chris Cortez, who held Tennessee at bay for more than four innings in the middle of the game. “But it’s impossible not to feel this tension, especially since the score of 1-0 hasn’t changed in so long. It feels like something has to give. And that’s what ‘is produced.”

Vitello agreed: “There were a few times where it was like, ‘Hey, we need to relax or change our mojo a little bit.’ This tension thing that has maybe appeared once or twice since we’ve been here, it’s clearly not working.”

A few minutes later, as the coach got off the stage and walked towards his team, he added: “But you could really feel that tension, couldn’t you? Like in the whole stadium.”

It was true. A walk through the packed grandstand was accompanied by an eerie silence, the stadium organ and occasional cheers from the section standing out more than usual. Although Tennessee rushed the field to celebrate the victory, the rising roar was short-lived.

It’s understandable. There is still work to be done, and no one knows it better than those dressed in brown or Big Orange. Neither program has ever won a national baseball title. They shared their first MCWS appearance in 1951, with A&M returning home early and Tennessee suffering a surprise loss in the title game to Oklahoma. In the seven decades since, both have suffered through years of baseball irrelevance despite good budgets and even better talent in the state’s high schools. Over the past decade, both have become baseball powerhouses, but neither has yet moved up in June.

In other words, harsh heat is nothing new to College Station or Knoxville.

“I really wish I had done everything tonight,” Schlossnagle said, involuntarily casting his eyes to the paperwork in his hand, no doubt already sorting through the availability of his pitching staff. “But there’s something poetic, I guess, about a season that starts in February and a playoff that started a month ago, players who have worked for this their whole lives, and all these years where our fans are waiting for a chance to win it all, that it would all come together in a game 3 tomorrow.

The intervening 26 hours will be filled with all those players looking for ways to stay free, those coaches examining stats, trends and pitch counts, and those fans on both sides having beer-marinated discussions about it all.

“I left one of my damn AirPods, so I only had one (Friday night) and I could hear the party in the street, so last night it was hard to sleep,” Vitello said laughing. “I’m going to put both in. You’re just going to use a sound machine, brown noise instead of white noise for me personally. But yeah, you have to eat. You have to rest. I have friends and family in town, but I can’t enjoy Omaha tonight like they can I guess you just have to be a guy, because the team is probably itching to get back in the old baseball rematch.

Everyone is. After all, it was a long wait.