OMAHA, Neb .– Will Bednar and Landon Sims combined a one-hitter, Mississippi State scored an early goal and built on its lead, and the Bulldogs won their first national championship with a 9-0 win over Vanderbilt in the crucial third game the College World Series finals on Wednesday night.
Bednar, who worked on three days of rest, went three of the first five punches he faced before retiring 15 in a row. He handed the game closer to the Bulldogs star to begin seventh place, and Vandy broke up the no-hitter when Carter Young drove into midfield with one in eighth.
It was the first one-hitter at the CWS since 2014, and it seemed like the whole city of Starkville, Miss., Was at TD Ameritrade Park to witness it.
When third baseman Kamren James first threw for the final, the Bulldogs dugout emptied and about 100 fans jumped out of the stands to celebrate as Josh Hatcher waved a national championship flag in the infield. The players then walked the warning trail that went up to the high five of the fans.
Bednar (9-1), whose 15 strikeouts were the most here in 25 years on his Omaha debut against Texas on June 20, fanned four against Vandy (49-18) and was named CWS Most Outstanding Player.
The national championship is the first in a team sport for the state of Mississippi (50-18) and came at the Bulldogs 12th CWS appearance. Only Florida State (23) and Clemson (12) were at least as often without a title in Omaha.
Tanner and Clark homered four runs in the seventh inning to take the game out of reach against a Vanderbilt offense that only managed seven hits and three runs in the last 25 innings of the final.
Mississippi State defeated Kumar Rocker (14-4) in fifth place. Four of the top five clubs singled out in the inning, and Rocker went 5-0 with his team. It was the second time in three CWS starts that the predicted top 10 draft pick was not at its best, in part because of the shakier defense behind him.
The Commodores made six mistakes in the second and third games of the final and 13 mistakes in seven CWS games. The Bulldogs were clear in their seven games.
Wednesday’s game ended a CWS like no other since it began in 1947. Because of the pandemic, there was no CWS last year and Covid-19 was never out of mind during the return of the event despite TD Ameritrade Park being at full capacity .
The state of North Carolina had beaten the Arkansas Razorbacks to advance to the College World Series, but positive Covid-19 testing and contact tracing left the team with only half of their roster in a 3-1 loss to Vanderbilt last Friday . By this evening, a total of eight players had tested positive and asked the NCAA to remove the Wolfpack from the tournament due to Covid-19 protocols.
A second bracket final between NC State and Vandy was declared a no-contest, and the Commodores made it to the final to win their second straight title and third title since 2014.
They won the opener 8-2 after scoring seven runs in the first inning, but they didn’t do much the rest of the series.
Mississippi State won 13-2 in Game 2 and then rolled out to their title win thanks to Bednar.
It took the 1985 Bulldogs 36 years with future major league greats Will Clark and Rafael Palmeiro to become one of the best, if not the best, teams that couldn’t win a CWS.
The ’85 team won their first two games in Omaha, then lost two in a row and was gone. The next four MSU teams to make it into the CWS haven’t won more than one game here.
source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/mississippi-state-wins-first-college-world-series-over-vanderbilt/
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