OMAHA, Neb. — June 1956 was a different time in America. As a country, we had barely been blessed with the bittersweet technology of the snooze button on alarm clocks, and Elvis Presley was just starting to cause a ruckus by performing on TV without a guitar, making his hip gyrations on stage the stuff of national concern. It also happens to be the first time that someone ever hit for the cycle in the Men’s College World Series.
It was also the only time that such a statistically quirky but remarkable hitting feat occurred in the tournament’s history — that is, until June 14 at Charles Schwab Field. Now, Tennessee Volunteers second baseman Christian Moore has joined the list as one of only two people to ever hit for a single, double, triple and homer in a MCWS game, after Jerry Kindall, the legendary former University of Arizona head coach with three national titles. Kindall played for the Minnesota Gophers in 1956, and the series was still relatively new to Rosenblatt Stadium.
That world was very much still in black and white, in many ways. The young man known as C-Mo to his teammates did it this weekend to open the proceedings for the Volunteers in full color. Tennessee is back in action tonight against North Carolina (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2/ESPN+) in winners bracket play in Omaha.
“Christian Moore was a man on a mission tonight,” Vols coach Tony Vitello said after a thrilling 12-11 victory over Florida State in Game 2 of the MCWS. “That guy wants to win as much as anybody on the field. I don’t know how you define that, but that’s what makes his motor go. He’s not going so good when he’s not in that mode and he’s worrying about other things.”
Going 5-for-6 with 12 total bases, 4 extra base hits and 3 runs scored is enough to stuff the stat line, but how it happened was equally remarkable. He started the game with a leadoff triple, then basically plated another run (Florida State’s catcher dropped a sure out at the plate in a wacky play) the next inning and scored again himself. After a great piece of hitting netted him a single in the fourth, he homered to complete the task.
A gargantuan no-doubt shot to center field, it was clear there wasn’t going to be a better player on the field that night. And his two-out, 2-strike ninth-inning double was just a cherry on top of a signature performance that led to a win.
“I guess when you’ve hit for the cycle — was that in the sixth inning he had hit for the cycle — you know what you’re dealing with,” Florida State Seminoles coach Link Jarrett said after the game.
We’re not talking about a random anomaly of a performance or a blowout win where some guy is just filling up the stat sheet. They were down when that homer left the yard. The game was on the line when he locked-in late and kept the rally going to win in the ninth. Fun history aside, the top-seed Vols needed his night, in what was otherwise honestly a super-sloppy game in a thrilling MCWS which has seen three walk-off hits in the first three games.
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