Let’s tell the truth about Tennessee Baseball winning last year’s College World Series national championship. Half the reason Vol fans celebrated it so much was this was another major sport in which they could claim a title, joining football and women’s basketball.
However, the ultimate goal is to claim titles in as many sports as possible, and men’s basketball and softball have been knocking on the door for years. As a result, if you put Vol fans in front of the Mirror of Erised, a softball title would’ve been more likely than a second straight baseball title this year.
That makes the bittersweet events of Monday skew in the negative direction.
Tony Vitello and Tennessee Baseball beat the Wake Forest Demon Deacons 11-5 Monday to advance to the super regionals, in which they will face the Arkansas Razorbacks. Before that, though, the Lady Vols softball program lost to the Texas Longhorns 2-0 in the WCWS semifinals, getting eliminated.
Spreading out the titles was a big enough deal in the sport, but the way UT lost on the softball diamond made it worse. Twice, they suffered heartbreaking losses. Their first was a walk-off home run loss to the Oklahoma Sooners last Friday, and two they had errors against Texas Monday, one of which gave up a run.
Heartbreak is at the center of the softball program’s WCWS history. Monica Abbott was one of the greatest pitchers in history and helped the Lady Vols steamroll through the NCAA softball tournament in 2007, only for a lack of run support to cost UT its final two games when it needed just one to win the title.
This year could have alleviated that, but instead, they are going home again. The baseball dynasty could be in play, and Vitello is easily the best coach in the sport right now, but Karen Weekly’s softball program deserved its moment, and it didn’t happen.
Sure, there is a tier of sports, and baseball is ahead of softball, but Vol fans will weigh tiers with what things mean for their program overall. Having a national title in another major sport outweighs two national titles in just one sport.
This isn’t to say UT fans wouldn’t prefer a title in football, men’s basketball or women’s basketball. They would, and it’s in that order. The point is that the difference in enthusiasm for baseball and softball is marginal enough that a softball title would have been preferable this year.
