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Elizabeth Merrill
OMAHA, Neb. — The DJ is booked, and the marriage desserts — one white, one chocolate — are about to be baked. 2 hundred and fifty persons are able to fill St. Michael Catholic Church close to Louisville, Kentucky, late Friday afternoon for the marriage of Katelyn Farmer and Tanner Shiver.
All that’s lacking is the groom.
Shiver is a utility participant for the Louisville Cardinals, who’re enjoying within the Males’s School World Sequence. They face Oregon State on Tuesday at Charles Schwab Subject in Omaha. The Cardinals’ hope is to maintain staving off elimination and advance to the finals, which begin Saturday.
Friday is an off day on the MCWS, and if all the things goes proper for Louisville and Shiver, he’ll be benefiting from it. Shiver’s plan is to fly residence, get hitched and make it again for the best-of-three championship spherical. He must reschedule their honeymoon, which is booked to a secret vacation spot.
If this sounds unbelievable, this is the kicker — Farmer is ok with all of this.
She calmly sat within the foyer of the Hilton Backyard Inn in downtown Omaha on Monday afternoon, working remotely on her laptop computer as Shiver obtained able to step on a bus together with his workforce, which was headed to an area kids’s hospital.
Farmer is an athlete herself, a former midfielder on the Tennessee Tech ladies’s soccer workforce. So she will get it. In Shiver’s Louisville baseball bio, he lists Farmer as his favourite athlete, calling her a “Tennessee Tech ladies’s soccer legend.”
They met within the cafeteria at Tennessee Tech as freshman and had been buddies at first, however that did not final lengthy.
“She has the prettiest blue eyes you are ever going to see,” he stated. “I had a crush on her the entire time, however I did not inform her.”
Shiver is Farmer’s first boyfriend.
“I am only a lady who is aware of what I need,” she stated.
About two-and-a-half years later, round Christmas 2023, he obtained down on one knee and proposed to her in the midst of a crosswalk in downtown Cookeville, Tennessee. Shiver had his buddies block site visitors, and strangers on the sidewalk cheered. Farmer stated it was the very best day of her life.
Shiver, a two-sport athlete at his highschool in Maryville, Tennessee, was a walk-on soccer participant at Tennessee Tech. His remaining highschool season at Maryville had been scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic, giving him little likelihood to show he was worthy of a Division I scholarship. He wished to play soccer, partly, as a result of he beloved tackling individuals. His sophomore season, he landed a spot within the beginning lineup, then suffered a excessive ankle sprain in his first recreation.
Shortly after that, Shiver had a historical past class with a few baseball gamers who sat in entrance of him.
“They weren’t centered on historical past,” he stated. “That they had their laptops out watching YouTube movies of baseball highlights.
“I might see it, after which I began getting the baseball itch.”
He instructed Farmer that he wished to check out for the baseball workforce, and though she was skeptical, she supported him. He practiced on the intramural fields, hitting off a tee right into a chain-link fence. A couple of months later, after a three-year break from baseball, he made the Tennessee Tech baseball roster.
In his second season, in 2024, he hit .296 with 9 residence runs. Shiver entered the switch portal for his graduate 12 months and instructed each coach he talked to — together with Louisville’s Dan McDonnell — that he was getting married on June 20, 2025.
He stated that lengthy earlier than the 2025 season began, McDonnell and the Cardinals believed they’d be in Omaha that summer time.
“The plan all alongside was to win a nationwide championship,” Shiver stated, “and it was humorous, as a result of he stated one thing when he was recruiting me. He was like, ‘That is going to be an awesome story for individuals like ESPN to run, as a result of it is going to occur.'”
Farmer, who’s engaged on her monetary planner license, is flying residence Tuesday night time after the sport and can resume marriage ceremony preparations. Her mother, Michelle, has served as her full-time marriage ceremony planner, caring for all the small print in Farmer’s absence — they’re serving rooster on the reception and could have an enormous marquee on the dance flooring that claims, “The Shivers.”
“There’s not likely rather a lot to be pressured about,” Farmer stated, “as a result of that is so enjoyable, watching him reside out a childhood dream.”
She stated if he is not residence for Thursday night time’s rehearsal dinner, it is nice. A buddy will fill in.
“So long as he is there on the finish of the aisle after I stroll down on Friday,” she stated, “the remaining we’ll work out.”
Shiver stated he’ll take a late-night flight Thursday if it is necessary, and he’ll fly again Saturday morning. He is aware of one factor for sure: He is not lacking his marriage ceremony. He stated it does not matter that he is a backup — he’d be there in Louisville on Friday if he was batting cleanup.
“I’ll be in Louisville, Kentucky, come hell or excessive water, on June 20, it doesn’t matter what,” he stated, “to marry the love of my life.”