The Official #1 Tennessee vs Notre Dame Super Regional Games Thread (Fri 6/10 6PM EST ESPN 2) ( Sat. 6/11 2PM EST ESPN ) (Sun. 6/12 1PM EST ESPN)

#636
#636
Article about Drew Beam:

Tennessee baseball might not be chasing historic greatness without its Beams of light

Some excerpts:

There’s no doubt in Beam’s mind that his pitching career is what it is today — likely headed for a prominent draft spot in 2024, among other things — in large part because of his 14-year-old sister Carlee.

“I honestly wouldn’t be here, no way, if not for her,” said Beam, 19. “She’s actually done a lot for me in my life. I had to mature quicker because I had to help my parents with a lot of things. You’re helping take your sister to the bathroom and things like that, things most 10-year-olds and young teenagers don’t have to do or think about. You start understanding about not taking things for granted in life. Then you see how happy she is every day, it kind of puts in perspective that you can’t let life drag you down because something happened or because you’re a little different.”

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is a genetic disease affecting the central nervous system, in which muscles don’t receive signals from motor neurons and don’t develop as a result. It’s the most common genetic cause of death among infants. There are four types, the third and fourth of which don’t have an extensive impact on quality of life. Type I, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, means death by respiratory failure before age 2 in the “vast majority” of those affected.

Children with Type II are unable to walk and, per the Institute, “life expectancy is reduced but most individuals live into adolescence or young adulthood.” SMA Type II is what 2-year-old Carlee Beam was diagnosed with on April 19, 2010, after a few months of doctors trying to figure out why she was delayed physically. That’s when everything changed for Kelli, husband Jason and their 7-year-old son Drew.

“I didn’t really grasp what it meant at time,” Drew said, but in the years ahead he would come to understand it, start his own lawn business at 12, help take care of Carlee and mature in ways that aren’t required of many kids that age.

“Your brain hurts, your heart hurts and you just don’t know,” Kelli said. “If you look up SMA on the internet, it’s not the most encouraging news you’ll ever see. We had no idea about any of it, we had never heard of this in our lives. But from that day on we’ve said, ‘You know what? We’re gonna keep living no matter what, we’re gonna keep doing our thing.’ So we have, and Carlee has. We follow our kids around, we love them big, we let them do whatever they can do to chase their dreams.”

Carlee’s revolve around cheerleading. She was the manager for her middle school cheer team and will do the same as a freshman next school year at Blackman High. She helps Kelli teach in the kids ministry at Fellowship Bible Church, and gives them rides on the wheelchair that has been part of her life for as long as she can remember.

She has become popular enough around Lindsey Nelson Stadium that the ushers know her by name, and the same is true of the Vols. Drew Gilbert, Cortland Lawson and Zander Sechrist are among the players with purple “Cure SMA” bracelets. All of the players on the team will eventually take a picture with Carlee, if her in-progress plan is fulfilled. Vitello’s parents have become close with her. When Vitello called the Beams before UT’s March road series against Ole Miss, it was to talk about their daughter, not their son.

“He was concerned about making sure she had a great experience in their stadium. He was like, ‘We got it, I’ll take care of it,’” Kelli said. “For him to call and just care enough about that, it meant a lot to us. That’s this team and these families, they love each other.”
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“Unbeknownst to us, Drew was having conversations with Coach Vitello, and one day he comes in and says, ‘I just got off the phone with him and I’m gonna commit there,’” Jason said with a laugh. “I kind of wanted him to do visits, get courted a little bit and he said, ‘Nope, I’ve drank the Vitello Kool-Aid, I’m all in.’ We let him handle the whole thing, to be honest.”

Except for one thing. Kelli called Vitello and, as she recalls, said to him: “I do want to talk to you about who you are as a person. Character for us is above and beyond anything else with Drew, that it stays intact, that’s very important to us.”

She exited that conversation as bought in to the program as Drew.
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#637
#637
Volprofch05 said:
Article about Drew Beam:

Tennessee baseball might not be chasing historic greatness without its Beams of light

Some excerpts:
Click to expand...

Drew sounds like an absolutely incredible young man. People like to give Tony crap for his antics on the diamond, but every kid in this program tells me that Vitello prioritizes recruiting players with integrity, heart, and courage.

Also, I love that Drew said "I've drank the Vitello Kool-Aid". Haha! Going to have to use that one more often. Tony V must really know what to say to these kids.
 
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#644
#644
TheMookieMonster said:
Notre Dame is a fantastic team, and there is much I am concerned about ahead of this weekend.......but, the one thing I am NOT concerned about is our guys "looking ahead" to Omaha and not taking them seriously. Whoever said this hasn't scouted our team properly. I am confident our sights are entirely focused on the Fighting Irish. You don't play 60+ games, get to the Super Regionals, and then not take your opponent seriously when you are one-step from Omaha.

If anything, our guys would be the first to admit we played arguably our worst baseball of the past month in the Knoxville Regional, so they'll be hoping to make a statement that we aren't that team.
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The sign of a great team is finding a way to win when your game is off, especially against good opponents like we saw over the weekend. I feel like this Vol team will put great pitching, great hitting, and great defense together this weekend.
 
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