Christian Moore named 2024 Knox News Sportsperson of the Year after Tennessee baseball CWS title – Knoxville News Sentinel

June in Omaha remains a blur to Christian Moore.
The Vols superstar can recall games and situations enough to piece together how Tennessee baseball won five games on the way to the program’s first College World Series title. He has gone back and watched replays to fill in the parts and plays that got lost in the midst of chasing history.
“We just looked different,” Moore said. “Everything. Stature, swings, takes, pitches. We just looked different. It all makes sense.”
Moore epitomizes different. 
He is the Knox News Sportsperson of the Year after smashing his way to one of the best individual seasons in SEC history and catalyzing Tennessee’s run to the first national championship in program history.
Moore talks about Tennessee’s historic season under coach Tony Vitello as if the ending was inevitable. 
The start gave it that feeling. Something sparked within the group in fall baseball in 2023. A different bond burst and it blossomed into a seamless mindset as the season neared. 
“We knew that we wanted to win a national championship,” Moore said. “We wanted to figure out how to play with guys. We were so eager and so hungry to do it and we had the right guys come in that wanted to do it as well.”
Moore was in the middle of it. 
The junior second baseman slugged a program-record 34 homers and is one of 11 players in NCAA history to hit at least 34 home runs in a season. He set the UT career record with 61 homers. He hit .375 with 75 RBIs with 19 doubles and two triples as the table-setting leadoff force atop an unrelenting Vols lineup.
More importantly, who Moore is established a tone. He was always fiery. As a junior, he funneled his fight for good. He wanted to win at all costs. His attitude reflected it and people around him responded. 
The All-American willed Tennessee to a key series win at Kentucky in April with a three-homer game. He was ferocious in Omaha.
Moore grew. So did the team. 
“It was so important for me as just a human to meet the guys that I did, have the coaching staff that I did, and go to a school that had it all — great fan base, great people and such a great atmosphere,” said Moore, the No. 8 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft by the Los Angeles Angels.
Moore doesn’t want to say he expected what he got out of his time at Tennessee — any of it let alone all of it. 
He dreamed about winning a national title starting in 2017, buying into the vision when he committed to Tennessee early in high school. Vitello talked Omaha. Moore believed.
“I think I thought about that every single day,” Moore said. 
The Brooklyn native found out the dream could be reality as a freshman. 
MOORE:Christian Moore’s quest for greatness leads him to brink of Tennessee baseball icon status
The 2022 Vols were the best team in college baseball that season in Moore’s sight. He learned how to work daily and make your work count. He took a lesson from falling short. Winning a national title isn’t only about how good you are. It is about how long a team can play at its best together. 
He aimed at Omaha for the next two seasons, helping Tennessee reach it in 2023 with an incredible performance in the Clemson Regional. When that run ended, he immediately thought of more in 2024 — and then he got the chance he would not squander.
Moore hit for the cycle in UT’s CWS-opening win against Florida State. He mouthed “let’s fight” to the Tennessee dugout amid a tense ninth-inning at-bat. He homered leading off Game 3 of the finals against Texas A&M, which Tennessee won 6-5 to take the title.
“For me to win a natty, that is all we worked for,” Moore said. “That is all I ever wanted from the minute I came to campus. I love winning. I just loved winning.”
Tennessee became the SEC’s first 60-win team when it won the national championship. It lost once in Omaha, but Moore felt the Vols were unbeatable the moment Dylan Dreiling hit a walk-off single against FSU. 
That hit set a tone, something that Moore knew all about as one of the greatest players in Tennessee history leading the best team in Tennessee history.
Moore launched his glove and hat in the air when Tennessee won the title at the end of the two-week blur in Omaha, the culmination of a memorable career ending on the highest note.
“Natty champ,” Moore said of his legacy. “Played hard every day. Really just gave his all for Tennessee. Those are the three things I really cared about.”
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on X @ByMikeWilson or Bluesky @bymikewilson.bsky.social. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.

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