This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian’s Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

CHICAGO -- Christopher Morel was sprinting around the bases at a furious pace. This was no home run trot -- it was an adrenaline-fueled triumph. He flung his Cubs helmet and howled at second base, and then started ripping off his jersey as he came tearing around third.

The white uniform top fell to the grass in foul ground at the feet of celebrating Cubs third-base coach Willie Harris.

“That's the first time I've ever seen a player take off his own jersey,” Harris said with a laugh. “I saw the jersey on the ground and I'm like, 'I'm gonna pick this up and wave it around like it's a flag.'”

It was a wild scene on Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, where Morel’s three-run, walk-off homer gave the Cubs not only a 4-3 win over the rival White Sox, but a moment that will be replayed and retold in the years to come. And in the middle of the chaos was Cubs team photographer Matt Dirksen, clicking away and capturing some of the images fans will remember for a long time.

Dirksen estimated he has been in the middle of a dozen walk-off celebrations in his career.

“That was the hardest one,” he said in a recent chat in the Cubs’ dugout.

Part of the challenge was the fact that it was Morel -- dubbed an “electric factory” by Cubs fans and teammates alike -- was at the center of it all. If Morel launched a pitch from White Sox reliever Gregory Santos, there was simply no way the budding Cubs star was going to take his time on the basepaths. Morel was going to set off a party.

“You know that his energy for celebration is more than anybody else's,” Dirksen said. “It’s uncontrollable. That’s who he is. I knew I had less time to get to home plate than anybody.”

Situated in a camera well nearest home plate in the Cubs’ dugout, Dirksen watched Morel make contact and knew the liner over right-center field was going to at least reach the warning track. When the ball carried over Wrigley’s famous basket, and arms shot skyward amid an explosion of cheers, it was time to hustle.

“I was ready to go,” Dirksen said. “But I had no time. He was already there when I turned around.”

As Dirksen jogged onto the field, trailing the pack of Cubs teammates pouring out of the dugout and racing to home plate, Morel was already pulling his jersey off and roaring toward the plate.

“I don’t even remember where I took it off,” said Morel, who went home-to-home in 18.6 seconds, per Statcast. “Close to home plate, right? Third base?”

Morel still had some deer-in-the-headlights shock lingering postgame. Cubs infielder Nick Madrigal quipped that it must have been an “out of body” experience for his teammate.

Dirksen snapped away and captured a photo of the jersey hitting the ground just behind a smiling Harris, as Morel kept running home. The photographer then turned to chronicle the mob scene, getting low-angle shots and more from above the crowd of Cubs. Dirksen was in position to catch the moment teammates ripped Morel’s blue undershirt off him, as he continued to yell to the heavens.

“As the team photographer, you’re trying to tell the story from the team’s perspective,” Dirksen said. “You want the fans to feel like they’re part of it. And if a player looks at that picture, you want them to feel like, ‘Yeah, I remember that. That’s what my point of view was.’ That’s how I try to approach it anyway.”

Before heading inside to examine the photos collected, Dirksen spotted Harris holding Morel’s jersey. The third-base coach held it up and grinned wide, and the photographer made sure to freeze that moment in time, too.

“He won’t run as fast as the next one,” Dirksen joked. “But, it’ll still be just as exciting.”