Rucker: Vols overcome themselves, then Florida State in unforgettable Omaha game

Whether Tennessee deserved to win Friday’s College World Series drama versus Florida State is an intriguing but unimportant debate. The fact is that the top-ranked Vols found a way to beat themselves and then the Seminoles, and their walk-off victory puts them exactly where they wanted.

OMAHA, Nebraska— The debate of whether Tennessee deserved to win the College World Series thriller versus Florida State on Friday night is both entertaining and essential. When you score 12 runs on 18 hits in a nine-inning baseball game, you almost always win, and it’s difficult to argue that you don’t deserve it. When you send eight players to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning and six of them reach base, including four straight base hits with two outs, two of which were on two-strike counts, you may make a strong case for a win.

 

But then there’s the rest of what we saw and heard throughout the four-hour thriller at Charles Schwab Field, and the majority of it wasn’t terrific. They were, at the very least, unbecoming of the country’s number one team. Does any team deserve to win a College World Series game when it walks nine hitters, makes three mistakes, and has at least three other plays that may have resulted in errors? No. The obvious response to that question is no.

The amazing and horrible thing about athletics, however, is that teams do not always get what they deserve, and they certainly do not always receive what appears to be coming their way. Games are played, and unless they take place on a golf course, the team with the highest score wins. In clock-based sports, you play until the time runs out. In baseball and softball, you play until the home team gets the last out in the top of the inning or scores the winning run in the bottom of the inning. Or till it rains.It did not rain Friday night near the Nebraska-Iowa border. Nearly nine full innings were played, and the ultimate result was 12-11 Tennessee.

Almost no point in the game’s final seven innings did it appear that Tennessee would win. The Vols were fortunate to avoid some early jams and capitalize on some Florida State mistakes to lead 4-1 entering the third quarter. Tennessee-caliber teams frequently capitalize on such opportunities and cruise to easy victories. In fairness, that is exactly what the Vols have done for the majority of the last five seasons. They did not do that on Friday night, however. They brought gathered their most

The worst inning of the season. It was as near to a total catastrophe as a talented squad could get. They walked and hit the hitters. They delivered two-strike pitches over the center of the plate. Their defense appeared to have participated in Omaha’s annual Jello shot tournament and performed admirably.

These things occur in baseball. They are not intended to happen to teams like this on such levels, however. But they happened. They definitely happened. And it appeared that the Vols would continue their record of losing College World Series openers, this time with the greatest loss of the season.