Tony Vitello, Tennessee players explain how difficult it was to sit through delays against Southern Miss

For a memorable weekend on the diamond at the Hattiesburg Super Regional versus Southern Miss, Tennessee did a lot of sitting around and waiting over the final 24 hours.

First, the Volunteers had wait Sunday night to see whether Texas and Stanford would go to a third game of their Super Regional. That is because their game wouldn’t be scheduled until after that game was finished. Then they had to wait Monday to take the field due to a weather delay.

“It was definitely pretty challenging, but it kind goes with the theme of our whole team this year,” third baseman Zane Benton said after the third game of the Hattiesburg Super Regional. “We want that adversity. We feel like a lot of things have gone against us all year, but just battling through it together, getting better each day, and we’ll find ourselves where we want to be at the end of the season.”

That 24-hour-or-so span doesn’t even account for the weather delay Saturday that caused Game 1 of the series to finish Sunday before the start of Game 2.

In the end, Tennessee managed to defeat hosting Southern Miss to book its spot in the College World Series.

When they were waiting around Sunday night without knowing when they would play Monday, pitcher Drew Beam said most of the team watched the Texas-Stanford game together in anticipation of figuring out their schedule for Monday.

“We didn’t know when we were gonna play,” Beam said. “Most of us were sitting up there watching that Stanford and Texas game, just knowing at the end of the that, we’d figure out when we were gonna play. We really didn’t have an answer until late but we were just excited. Most of us were itching to get back out there. Wish we could have played again last night. It’s not ideal, but everyone was just ready to get out here and play another game. That’s just how the how the vibes were with some of the guys. That’s how we felt.”

It is the second College World Series appearance in three years for Tennessee. The Volunteers lost both of their games in Omaha in 2021.

Tennessee was on the fast track to the College World Series last year before being upset by Notre Dame in the Super Regional. Head coach Tony Vitello said last year’s experience helped the team this postseason.

“I appreciate greatly everybody that was a part of that team last year,” Vitello said. “They helped have one of the most memorable college seasons ever, most talked about. Then they also helped these guys learn some lessons. When you advance to Hoover and beyond, you’re still playing baseball but there’s other games you have to play. And that’s one of them is managing time and itineraries and things like that. I think these guys having learned those lessons helped us get through. You’re already playing a hell of a team. But then there’s other stuff that goes on and there’s some friendly things being said at the stands at all of us. There’s there’s a lot to take on, but that’s part of the deal. You have to win a bunch of battles, not just the ones that are on the field.