Hail State has its day. Mississippi State baseball claims its first national title
A storied Mississippi State baseball program finally has its first national championship, and it earned it in dominating fashion.
MSU (50-18) thumped Vanderbilt 9-0 Wednesday night in Game 3 of the title series to claim the 2021 College World Series championship at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Bulldogs blew open the game in the seventh inning with a four-run outburst that included a solo home run by George County native Logan Tanner and a three-run homer by Kellum Clark.
On only three days of rest, MSU starting pitcher Will Bednar turned in another dominant outing over six innings. He allowed no hits, struck out four and walked three.
Bednar retired the final 15 batters he faced after struggling somewhat with his control early, walking three batters in the first two innings.
After Bednar’s sluggish start, a struggling Vanderbilt lineup had no chance against the hard-throwing right-hander.
Landom Sims tossed the final three innings, holding the Commodores scoreless.
Vanderbilt’s first hit of the game didn’t come until Carter Young singled to center off Sims with one out in the bottom of the eighth.
Senior Rowdey Jordan set the table for Mississippi State all night long out of the leadoff spot, finishing 3-for-6 with two runs scored and an RBI.
Jordan singled to right field to start the game and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Luke Hancock to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead headed into the bottom of the first.
Jordan’s two-out double in the second inning pushed the Bulldogs’ lead to 3-0.
Jordan again led off with a single in the fifth and later scored on a Hancock single up the middle with one out.
The next man up, Tanner, pushed the MSU lead to 5-0 in the fifth on another RBI single to center field.
MSU forced Vandy ace Kumar Rocker from the game with one out in the fifth inning. The right-hander allowed five runs, four earned, on six hits in 4 ⅓ innings. He struck out six and walked two.
After MSU starting pitcher Christian MacLeod struggled in Vandy’s seven-run first inning in Game 1 of the CWS finals, it was all Bulldogs the rest of the way.
The MSU pitching staff held Vanderbilt to three runs over the final 26 innings.
Chris Lemonis, who moved from Indiana to MSU in 2018, is now 114-37 for a 75.5 percent winning percentage as the Bulldogs’ head coach.
This story was originally published June 30, 2021 at 9:02 PM.
