Something about Drew Gilbert and the first weekend of June.
The Vols’ cleanup hitter has certainly mastered the art of dramatic timing. In shades of his walk-off grand slam against Wright State last season, Gilbert smacked a three-run homer to right field to give Tennessee its first lead of the night over upset-minded Campbell in the winner’s bracket game on Saturday.
It was Gilbert’s second long ball in the regional, enough to force Georgia Tech to respect his power on Sunday. When given the chance to load the bases and constitute a force-out at every bag, any coach would do it. Especially when the guy in the batters box has a knack for ripping opposing teams’ hearts out when it counts.
Gilbert’s attitude is a perfect representation for what Tennessee baseball has become. The Vols just win games – scoring runs and taking an early lead on them is nothing more than an offense.
“I feel like it goes back to the mentality (Tony Vitello) has instilled in us, this punch back. Any time someone scores our mentality is to punch back,” Gilbert said. “I think it’s as simple as that.”
Tennessee has been down several times this season and come back to win it. It seems the Vols always have an answer. It’s in that way that this Tennessee team seems to differ from Tennessee squads – in any sport – of the past. For Tennessee fans, it’s hard to get nervous about trailing a few runs heading into the final three outs of the game.
It’s a championship caliber team, straight to the definition. The Vols lead the country in home runs, ERA and swept their regional against two offense-heavy teams in Georgia Tech and Campbell – both of which are in the top ten in home runs on the year.
Not to mention that Jared Dickey and Christian Moore, two bench players, played major roles in Tennessee’s six-run top of the ninth inning against Georgia Tech.
So how do they do it? How does any team, regardless of reputation or playing in front of a rowdy crowd, come back from four-run deficits in back-to-back games?
“When you worry about things like that, things usually go south,” Gilbert said after Tennessee’s win over Campbell. “For us, it’s just controlling what we can control. That’s showing up and preparing and competing our best.”
There’s no cognitive dissonance there for Gilbert, either. He truly lives that motto. Worrying is for those who don’t feel like they’re the best. Gilbert, and by extension Tennessee, feel like they’re the best.
The Vols are in for a bit of a change of pace this coming weekend against Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish play a different style of baseball compared to that of Campbell and Georgia Tech.
No team in the country has an ERA similar to Tennessee’s, but Notre Dame can be seen in the distance. The Fighting Irish are pitcher heavy and enter their second straight Super Regional appearance with the seventh lowest ERA in the country at 3.82. Tennessee’s is a full unit and a half lower at 2.38.
Notre Dame’s batting average of .295 will be third on the list of Tennessee opponents this postseason. Georgia Tech led the nation by this metric with a .227, while Campbell posted a respectable .299 – good enough for 36th in the country. Tennessee comes in at No. 11 with a .311 average on the season.
The Fighting Irish scored a total of 11 runs in their three games against Texas Tech and host No. 16 Georgia Southern.
