Save for one day against Evansville, No. 1 Tennessee has made pretty light work of their path to the College World Series final, where they face No. 3 Texas A&M.
According to sophomore outfielder Kavares Tears, it’s not just the talent of this Volunteer group, but also their connectedness that’s a driving force in their success. He said ahead of the championship series vs. the Aggies when asked about the camaraderie amongst the team:
“Because I think in my personal opinion I think team chemistry is something, outside of just natural abilities, I think that plays a huge role in how a team plays on the field,” Tears answered.
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He believes that when a team really bonds well off the diamond, that’s only going to help when they are playing.
“And I think the closer we got throughout the fall and throughout the season, I think it made it a lot easier for the freshmen to kind of make their adjustment a little quicker and get a feel for what goes on and how we approach every day at the field.”
Kavares Tears himself has certainly been a big piece of this run for Tennessee, and came up big in the Volunteers’ second game against Florida State on the defensive end. Tears made a running grab as he stretched out his arm just in time to pluck the ball out of the air before colliding with the wall.
It was the second such catch the Vols made at the College World Series after Hunter Ensley had a similar snag on Sunday against North Carolina. Then, when head coach Tony Vitello joined ESPN for an in-game interview during the third inning, where he compared the play to one from an MLB legend.
“It reminded me of Ken Griffey Jr.,” the coach said. “I forget the name of the Detroit Tigers old stadium, but it literally looked exactly like a catch Ken Griffey Jr. made. Y’all need to pull that up.”
It’s unclear exactly what catch Vitello is referring to, but Griffey did have a catch in 1998 against the Tigers in which he leapt over the wall for the grab. Either way, it’s certainly good company to be compared to as Griffey is considered one of the best outfielders in MLB history with 10 Golden Glove Awards.
Perhaps Tears is on track to become something similar one day.
On3’s Chandler Vessels also contributed to this article
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