2021 College World Series Championship Series Game 3: No. 7 Mississippi State 9, No. 4 Vanderbilt 0 (box score) (photo of Will Bednar courtesy of NCAA)
Will Bednar and Lucas Sims combined on a one-hit shutout as Mississippi State downed Vanderbilt to win the National Championship, the first in any team sport in school history.
“What an awesome night,” MSU head coach Chris Lemonis said. “Our kids played as free as you could be on the biggest stage, from the pitching to the defense, to the grind of having to beat one of the best pitchers in college baseball history and the defending champions. So proud of them. And it’s so awesome to bring back the trophy to Starkville. It’s our community and how much they love their baseball, it’s pretty special.”
The Bulldogs (50-18) took the title in their 12th trip to the College World Series.
Bednar (9-1) pitched six hitless innings with three walks and four strikeouts.
“It’s the greatest feeling ever to be a national champion,” Bednar said, “especially this group of guys. We worked so hard to get here. This is awesome. It’s unbelievable.”
Sims walked one and fanned four in recording his 13th save.
“That guy’s a bulldog,” Sims said of Bednar. “He’s the greatest competitor I’ve ever played with. He works his butt off every single day. There’s a lot that goes into his process, his work. Everything behind the scenes that nobody sees. He’s a great guy.”
The lone hit by the Commodores (49-18) was a single up the middle by Carter Young with one away in the eighth inning.
The Bulldogs got on the board in the top of the first. Rowdey Jordan had a leadoff single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Luke Hancock.
MSU added to its lead in the second. Scotty Dubrule and Brayland Skinner started the inning with walks. Dubrule came home on a groundout by Lane Forsythe and Skinner scored on a two-out double by Jordan to make it 3-0.
Jordan had a leadoff single in the fifth and went to second on a base hit by Tanner Allen. Jordan scored on a base hit by Hancock and Logan Tanner drove in Allen with a single as the Dawgs extended the lead to 5-0, knocking Kumar Rocker out of the game.
“I’m on top of the world,” Allen said. “I couldn’t be more happy for a team, a town, a fan base, the whole state of Mississippi, except Oxford, of course. Those guys are always on my back. So I had to take a shot at them. This team overcame everything. We just kept playing, and kept playing and playing. You blink an eye we’re national champions.”
Rocker (14-4) allowed six hits and four earned runs in 4.1 innings with two walks and six strikeouts.
“Personally left it all out there,” Rocker said. “Before the season started, I said to myself that I want these young guys to experience exactly what I experienced. And I came a game short of that.”
Tanner went deep in the seventh to extend the lead to 6-0. Kellum Clark had a three-run bomb later in the frame to give MSU a 9-0 advantage.
“I thank the NCAA and the people of Omaha for hosting the tournament,” VU head coach Tim Corbin said. “None of us took this for granted. None of us knew that we could potentially get people in here to watch these kids. It was such a celebration of baseball here in June, something we really needed. Congratulations to Mississippi State, their players, their fan base, for winning this thing. They’re very good. And very deserving. That’s a very tough team in so many different ways. They pitched so well. Bednar was outstanding. Sims is a next level reliever. Their players are tough. They’re really tough. They do such a nice job playing offense and playing defense. It’s a very good team. And we send our congratulations over to them and everyone from Mississippi State.”