Bubba Wallace celebrates Tennessee winning first College World Series
NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace made sure to let his Tennessee pride be known after the Volunteers claimed the College World Series on Monday. Following a 6-5 win from Tennessee against Texas A&M, Wallace took to X to show his excitement.
He posted a GIF of a Vols players showcasing the team logo across his chest from this past week in Omaha. The CWS marked the first in program history for Tennessee.
Wallace has deep ties to the program as his mother, Desiree, ran track for the Tennessee program and grew up in Knoxville. He also attended several Volunteers football games as a kid with his uncle, who was a season ticket holder.
“It’s really in my blood,” Bubba Wallace said previously in an article on Tennessee’s website.
Tennessee led 6-1 entering the eighth inning before giving up four runs combined in the final two frames. That included two runs in the ninth, the last of which was scored off of a wild pitch. However, he struck out the very next batter to close the game.
It didn’t take long for Tennessee to strike first. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Vols slugger Christian Moore stepped up to the plate against Texas A&M ace Justin Lamkin and sent a towering solo home run over the fence into the left field bleachers.
Texas A&M answered back with a tying run in the third. Graham Grahovac knocked in a run from a base hit to left field to score center fielder Travis Chestnut.
Tennessee didn’t leave the tie on the scoreboard for long, however. Dylan Dreiling scored teammate Blake Burke on a sac-fly in the bottom of the third before a Dean Curley single added another run to push the lead to 3-1.
The Volunteers were making their seventh overall appearance in the CWS and their second appearance in the finals. The national title is the 24th overall for the program.
Tony Vitello describes embrace with father after national championship win: ‘He wouldn’t stop crying’
After the win, Vitello’s father, Greg, met his son on the field to congratulate the feat that is over two decades in the making.
“I felt like I was the dad and he was the kid because he wouldn’t stop crying,” Tony Vitello said on the field after the game. “I had to rub some dirt on him. He was way too tough on me when I was younger. …”
Vitello was cut off by every coach’s favorite tradition — the post-championship gatorade bath.
Still, the embrace between Vitello and his father was one of the most wholesome moments of the entire postgame celebration. After years of chipping away, Greg Vitello’s son is a national champion.
