After making a dozen appearances in the College World Series without taking home a trophy, the Mississippi State baseball program finally broke through on Wednesday night against defending champion Vanderbilt.
Will Bednar outdueled top prospect Kumar Rocker on the mound by tossing a no-hitter through six innings, the offense exploded for the second straight night and the Bulldogs clinched their first national championship with a 9-0 victory over the Commodores in Omaha.
MSU’s title represents the school’s first national championship in any team sport.
The No. 7 national seed Bulldogs rallied back following their Game 1 loss. They outscored No. 4 Vanderbilt, 22-2, over the final two games to claim the elusive crown in convincing fashion.
Rowdey Jordan led off Wednesday’s deciding matchup — the only game in the best-of-three series that wasn’t delayed by weather —with a single to right field and came around to score on a sac fly by Luke Hancock for the first run of the evening.
MSU added to its lead in the second frame when Rocker issued a pair of walks and Jordan capitalized with a two-out RBI double to make it 3-0.
Hancock and Logan Tanner tallied RBI singles in the fifth inning to extend the Bulldogs’ advantage to 5-0.
In the seventh inning, MSU put two nails in the Commodores’ coffin.
First Tanner hit a solo home run to left field before Kellum Clark crushed a three-run shot to seal the Bulldogs’ second blowout win in a row.
Bednar was pulled after MSU’s big seventh inning, posting a final stat line of four strikeouts and three walks over six hitless innings.
Sophomore closer Landon Sims couldn’t preserve the no-hitter, but he did more than enough by preserving the shutout across the final three innings.
- Contact Riley Overend at 581-7237 or roverend@gwcommonwealth.com. Follow @OverendOut on Twitter.
