Dreiling and Stark Reunited by Rangers After Shortest Goodbye

Sports stats



SAL Hub City Spartanburgers

Dreiling and Stark Reunited by Rangers After Shortest Goodbye

June 10, 2025 - South Atlantic League (SAL)
Hub City Spartanburgers News Release


For two years, Cal Stark and Dylan Dreiling formed a "one of a kind" friendship as teammates at Tennessee. After winning a national championship with the Vols, it was time to say goodbye.

But goodbye only lasted 24 hours.

In 2023, Dreiling and Stark both landed on Rocky Top for the next step in their baseball careers, but the paths they took there were etched differently.

Dreiling was a heavily recruited high school standout, a two-way player out of Hays, Kansas. Most college coaches saw highest value in Dreiling's left arm on the mound; Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello left the door open for Dreiling to swing the bat after a successful summer tournament for Dreiling at the plate.

"[Coach Vitello] called me the next weekend," Dreiling explained. "He was like, 'Hey, if you keep progressing with the bat, you can two-way here.' In my head, that was a no-brainer for me."

Stark was born in Arlington, Texas, but he starred in the shadows of Lindsey Nelson Stadium for Farragut High School in Knoxville, Tennessee. It took Stark leaving Rocky Top and shining at the JUCO level to catch the eye of the Tennessee staff.

Conversations picked up between the two in the spring of Stark's freshman year at Navarro College in Texas. Tennessee's interest in Stark continued to his second stop in Texas at Weatherford College. After two years away from home, Stark returned to Knoxville for his junior season with the Vols.

"I knew that that was the place I wanted to go, so if they were to give me an offer it was pretty much a no-brainer," Stark said. "I was going to go there, play for Tennessee, play in front of my parents and family."

On paper, Stark should have been receiving pitches from Dreiling, but the lefty outfielder's bat was the more sought-after tool by the time his freshman year rolled around. Stark found his way into the majority of starts in 2023, while Dreiling was fighting for playing time.

The two were not naturally the best of friends their first year in Knoxville. Separated by two grades, it took a split pair of airpods to bring the two closer.

Cal Stark (left) and Dylan Dreiling (right) celebrate a Super Regional win at Tennessee.Stark and Dreiling helped lead Tennessee to the College World Series in two straight seasons.

"Every away game when we would get on the bus we always sat next to each other," Dreiling said. "I always forgot my headphones going to the field, and so he would give me an airpod and he would have an airpod. We would listen to music and started becoming close from that."

From the jump, Dreiling and Stark have been competitive with each other. It shows in everything they do.

"Whether we are playing ping pong or video games, we are always competing, going back and forth with each other," Stark said. "There's always trash talk going on. That's just kind of how our friendship has always been from the day we met until now."

The 2023 Tennessee team reached the College World Series, the second time in three years that the Vols made it to Omaha. While the season ended after a pair of losses to LSU, what Stark, Dreiling and teammates took away from the campaign shaped the course of the year after. Dramatic NCAA tournament games helped the 2023 squad form a tight bond at the end of the season.

When the players and coaches met that summer, "[we] made it a point of emphasis to [bond] in the fall instead of the end of the regular season," Dreiling said.

Stark and Dreiling stuck around with several other teammates over the summer in Knoxville to work out daily. The two even lived together for the first time, spending their free time fishing.

"The returners from that 2023 team made it a very big point to get the culture right early with the transfers and the freshman," Stark said.

From pool parties to karaoke - "It was a lot of stuff that you wouldn't really think that college guys would do together," Stark continued. "It was breaking the walls down and letting everybody know that this was a family."

The family extended beyond the dugout too. Stark and Dreiling's parents found friendship to match their sons from their countless hours together at tailgates and in the ballpark. They also found a means for celebrating that would match the Vols.

Dreiling and Stark's families pose for a picture.

Tennessee adopted a home run celebration in 2022. Whoever slugged the long ball was greeted with a fur coat and 'daddy' hat in the dugout to celebrate.

Dreiling's grandmother wore a fur coat to a midweek game in March of last year. After the Vols had a productive night at the plate, the families decided that the fur coat had to stick around. The Starks kept it in Knoxville and brought it with them to the next road series at Auburn. That weekend, Stark and Dreiling combined for four of the 14 Vols home runs. A week later, the parents' purchase of a 'mommy' hat arrived. The mom of the latest home run hitter for Tennessee would mirror her son in celebration in the stands.

"I do think it's probably an eye roll," Stark's mom, Gretchen, said in an interview last year on the reaction the players would have to their matching celebration. "It comes from the love that we have for what they do and the support that we just want to show and give to them."

The celebrations in the dugout and the stands carried late into June in 2024. After claiming the SEC Tournament title, Tennessee breezed through the Regionals and dodged upset-minded Evansville in the Super Regionals. In Omaha, the Vols won three straight games to set up a matchup with Texas A&M in the Finals.

After the Aggies took game one, Tennessee found itself down 1-0 in game two with just nine outs to play with. Dreiling and Stark launched home runs in back-to-back innings to lift the Vols into a winner-take-all game three. Dreiling knocked another home run, helping Tennessee to an early lead that proved just enough. A first national championship returned home to Knoxville.

Three weeks later, it was time for the MLB Draft. Just like two years prior, Dreiling was a highly-rated prospect; he expected to hear his name called in the first few rounds. He invited Stark to join him back in his hometown - Hays, Kansas - for a draft party. Stark made the trip along with both his parents.

"I spent pretty much that whole week with him playing golf and hanging out," Stark said. "We were just trying to, at that time, enjoy our last moments together because we thought with both of us going to play, we were not going to see each other much anymore."

The two spent the day on the golf course leading up to the draft. Golf might be the one thing the competitive nature of their relationship does not quite reach, at least on one side.

Stark was quick to respond when prompted on who the better golfer of the two is.

"Me, by far."

"He'll say it's him," Stark added. "But it's for sure me."

Dreiling was honest, though.

"I'm not good enough at golf to compete with him."

Dylan Dreiling (left) and Cal Stark (right) take a selfie on the golf course.

Dreiling had not heard much on the course and throughout the day about the draft. By the midway point of the second round, neither Dreiling nor Tennessee teammate Billy Amick had heard their names called. Dreiling called another teammate from Tennessee, Hunter Ensley, who was at Amick's draft party.

"Are you ready to run it back this year?" Dreiling said over the phone.

Ensley reassured both Dreiling and Amick that their time was coming. Shortly after, the Twins used the 60th pick on Amick. Five selections later, Dreiling was off the board to the Rangers to finish the second round.

Stark and Dreiling made their way back to Knoxville. Dreiling wanted to get a few more workouts in before he said his goodbyes and traveled out to Arizona to begin his pro career. Stark was still searching for a landing spot as a free agent.

A week passed. Dreiling said his goodbyes to Stark and several other friends and teammates before boarding his cross-country flight. Dreiling did not cough up the money for plane Wi-Fi, but he did watch an ad for 10 minutes of free internet halfway through the route. In that time, he received a vague, but excited message from Stark. When Dreiling landed in Arizona, he learned that Stark, too, had signed with the Rangers. The next morning, the two reunited in Arizona to begin their professional careers together.

"It was pretty cool coming off a national championship and then both of our dreams coming true, getting to play professional baseball for the same team," said Stark.

Dreiling made his professional debut at the High-A level last August for the Hickory Crawdads. Stark did the same just three weeks later. The Tennessee teammates would resume their roommate status too for the tail end of the 2024 minor league season.

When Hickory headed to Asheville for the final road series of the regular season, both Dreiling and Stark were in search of their first professional home run. The two had talked about it before a Sunday afternoon game to finish the series. Stark joked that there was "no way" he would hit one before Dreiling.

Dreiling was leading off with Stark in the nine-hole. Dreiling was forced into spectator mode from the on-deck circle in the fourth inning when Stark launched a hanging slider to left for a solo home run.

"Who has more homers this year," Stark remarked when he crossed home plate.

Four innings later, Dreiling demolished a ball over the right-field wall.

"He likes to tell everybody that he hit the first one," Dreiling joked. "But I hit the further one."

Teamed up in Spartanburg for a first full season of professional baseball, Dreiling and Stark traded in the fur coat and hat from Tennessee for a burger chain and hat following home runs. They have not traded in their competitive spirit or their friendship though.

"If you were just an outsider listening in to our conversations, I feel like at times you would ask, 'Are these guys actually friends?'" Stark said. "[Our friendship] is something that I will cherish forever and something that our families will cherish forever too."

Check out the Hub City Spartanburgers Statistics



South Atlantic League Stories from June 10, 2025


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central