The first World Series experience for Marcus Phillips remains a bit of a blur. The University of Tennessee sophomore was a star player on the Sioux Falls Little League team that reached the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in 2017.
“I feel like I blacked out for most of it,” Phillips says. “It just didn’t feel real as a 12, 13-year-old kid and having all that media around. I don’t think I realized how crazy it really was.”
Phillips doesn’t expect to be quite as overwhelmed when he returns to the World Series stage this week as top-seeded Tennessee begins play in the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
Phillips, a transfer from Iowa Western Community College, will be joining an exclusive club of players who have competed in both the LLWS and the CWS.
“It will be pretty cool. Everybody grows up dreaming about the College World Series. For me, I grew up dreaming about playing in the Little League World Series too,” Phillips says. “The end goal is to win it, but it’s an amazing milestone to say you’ve competed in both.”
The Vols (55-12) are no strangers to Omaha since head coach Tony Vitello was hired and revitalized the program. They are appearing for the second straight season and the third time in the last four seasons. Tennessee begins play against No. 8 Florida State Friday at 7 p.m. EDT.
In the action this time
Phillips was in the stands last season watching the Vols compete in Omaha. The pitcher/outfielder committed to Tennessee before he even attended his first class at Iowa Western.
Although he wanted to play Division I right out of high school, Phillips only received two offers (Kansas and Western Kentucky). But once he began showcasing his pitching ability during the summer after graduating high school, more programs began to take notice.
Phillips wanted to keep hitting in college, and was recruited to Iowa Western as an outfielder. But once the head coach left before he arrived on campus, the new coaching staff saw video of him pitching and assumed he was a pitcher.
Tennessee pitching coach Frank Anderson also saw Phillips on the mound and invited him for a visit to Knoxville. Phillips was ready to commit before he left campus.
“Tennessee was the first place to reach out to me last year,” says Phillips, who has made 18 appearances this season with two starts. “I think it was less than two weeks from when I got to the junior college and Coach A reached out to me. I signed right away. I told my mom the first day I got there I wanted to sign before even taking any other visits.”
Phillips grew up around the diamond. His dad, Steve Phillips, played minor league baseball in the New York Yankees organization for five years before becoming a minor league coach for a decade.
“My earliest memory was playing Wiffle ball with my dad and siblings on a minor league field when my dad was coaching,” Phillips says. “I was only like 2 or 3 years old, so I’ve always been around baseball and really fell in love with the game.”
Steve Phillips had allegiances to another SEC program before his son began playing for UT. He attended the University of Kentucky on a football scholarship and used a fifth year of eligibility to play baseball. Coincidentally, both programs will be in Omaha this week after the Wildcats clinched their first CWS berth in program history.
“My college roommates and a couple other people I am still close to make some comments about my son playing for Tennessee, but the reality is Kentucky didn’t know about him and they didn’t recruit him,” Steve says. “I am happy to support him where he is and it’s hard not to love everything about Tennessee.”
Badlands good place to grow up
South Dakota isn’t exactly a hotbed of baseball talent like California, Georgia, Florida and Texas. But it provided a fertile development ground for Marcus and his siblings. Steve met his wife, Melissa, in South Dakota while playing independent ball, and they decided to return to her home state once they began having children.
Marcus was able to play for his dad in Little League and with the Sioux Falls Cyclones baseball organization.
“I love it. Obviously, it’s home for me and different compared to where other people grew up. I definitely had to catch up when I got to college, even JC, because I never saw that velocity as a hitter and never faced as talented of batters on the mound either,” Marcus says. “But I enjoy people underestimating me because of where I came from. I want people to see South Dakota and doubt me. The reality is I work just as hard as anybody else to get where I am.”
Throughout Tennessee’s return run to Omaha, Sioux Falls and the surrounding areas have taken notice.
“He’s got a lot of support from a lot of people following him. I have kids on our 10U team talking about Marcus,” Steve says. “I didn’t even know they were watching, but they saw him on TV. It’s a big stage and a lot of people here are excited and happy for him.”
The Phillips family plans to be in Omaha, which is only a 2½-hour drive from Sioux Falls, for as long as the Vols remain in the CWS. After the trip to the LLWS in 2017, they all know how special any World Series appearance is for everyone involved.
“The opportunity for those kids to play in Williamsport was unbelievable. It was an experience those kids will have for the rest of their lives,” Steve says. “As parents, it’s pretty exciting to see Marcus get to experience both that and the College World Series.”