OMAHA, Neb. — Zander Sechrist suddenly had a problem.
Florida State crushed back-to-back pitches, putting two runners in scoring position Wednesday. The Tennessee baseball pitcher stared down the best two hitters in the Seminoles lineup with no outs in the third inning.
It was over two plays and six pitches later with Tennessee’s 4-0 lead intact.
“I don’t know if I have ever seen a series of plays like that,” Vols pitcher Drew Beam said.
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In a flash, Tennessee showed what coach Tony Vitello has raved about for months. The Vols were at their most mature at an inflection point in the College World Series, proving they are who Vitello has said they are in a 7-2 win against Florida State at Charles Schwab Field. It’s why Tennessee (58-12) will play for a national championship starting Saturday (7:30 p.m, ESPN) against Texas A&M (52-13) — and it started and ended with a freshman shortstop.
How Dean Curley made a veteran play for Tennessee baseball vs FSU
Sechrist jumped as high as he could to no avail.
FSU star Cam Smith hit a chopper that cleared the mound and bounded toward the middle of the infield. Shortstop Dean Curley charged with a decision to play. Option A was to throw home and try to throw out Jaxson West while Option B was take the out at first base.
“You always think Option A is protecting home plate,” Vitello said.
Curley glanced toward third, where he saw West hesitate while waiting to see if the ball would get over Sechrist. West bolted for home when it did. Curley judged he had plenty of time to make the play he wanted. He chose to throw home.
He gathered his body, squared his momentum to the plate and rifled the ball to catcher Cal Stark. West was out by 20 feet.
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“That was an unreal play by Dean to even have the awareness to look home,” Burke said.
Vitello declared postgame he wasn’t even sure what happened on Curley’s play, but it was “such a good play.” He likes to think that Curley is more of a sophomore than a freshman after 64 games. There’s still a few things that he’d classify in the freshman category with Curley, but they pale compared to a peculiar mental maturity.
“It is tough to be out there as a freshman in Omaha with a lot of stuff going on,” star Vols infielder Christian Moore said.
It didn’t look tough for Curley when he threw home or on the following play.
The smarts of Blake Burke showed up for the Vols in the CWS
Blake Burke hopped off first base as Sechrist pitched to FSU outfielder James Tibbs III.
Tibbs smashed a chopper that took one hop straight to Burke, who sprung into action. He hopped back to first base with the ball in his glove for an out.
Burke was keenly aware FSU’s Max Williams was headed for home from third and the race was on to complete a double play before Williams touched home. He looked at Curley standing on second and had a clear throwing lane.
“Normally, when you are making that play, you have to touch a base and make a lane,” Burke said. “He was kind of out of my throwing lane so I had a throwing lane right when I touched the bag.”
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Such plays have gone haywire on Burke this season. He has hit runners with such a throw to second by not clearing a lane. Smith ran toward right field enough that Burke didn’t have to step into the infield to make the throw.
Curley crouched to catch Burke’s throw and didn’t wait for Smith to arrive. He burst toward Smith to tag him out before Williams crossed home plate with a split-second decision prevented a Seminoles run.
“It was really cool to see just how guys got on and had some pressure and we stayed really composed and calm in the situation,” Beam said.
Burke turned toward the dugout the moment Curley caught his throw. He knew Tennessee had pulled off an impressive escape from a tenuous situation. Sechrist did, too, celebrating freely by the first-base line with Tennessee powering into the CWS final.
“It was almost a turning point in that game,” Beam said. “They almost had the meter turning back to them momentum-wise. That stalled them out and got it back going in our direction.”
It wasn’t such a problem after all.
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.
First appeared on www.knoxnews.com