College Baseball World Series 2021: Sunday Scores, Winners and Bracket Results
The second bracket of the 2021 College World Series opened play Sunday.
After NC State and Vanderbilt made progress toward the championship by defeating Stanford and Arizona, respectfully, the other four teams hit the field in Omaha, Nebraska, to determine who could end up on the other side of the title games next weekend.
Here's a look at what went down when Tennessee, Virginia, Texas and Mississippi State got going at TD Ameritrade Park:
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2021 College World Series Sunday Scores
Virginia 6, Tennessee 0
Mississippi State 2, Texas 1
Virginia 6, Tennessee 0
The Virginia Cavaliers likely came into their game with a chip on their shoulder, as they lost in the opening games of their regional and super regional series. To even get to the College World Series for the first time since 2015, they had to look to freshman Kyle Teel to belt a two-out grand slam in a winner-take-all game against Dallas Baptist at the Columbia super regional.
Tennessee eased past LSU in the Knoxville super regional after defeating Wright State and ending LIberty's run in a pair of wins in the Knoxville regional.
A Logan Michaels leadoff homer in the top of the third started the scoring for the Cavaliers, but they couldn't keep it going despite the presence of Zack Gelof on the basepath after he doubled.
But it was clearly a pitchers' duel for most of the outing.
Virginia looked to All-American Andrew Abbott on the hill to get things going. He entered with a 3.04 ERA and an 8-6 record, though he's struggled more recently.
He threw 28.1 scoreless innings at the end of the regular season, but his postseason starts haven't been nearly as pretty. He gave up four earned runs and eight hits in a super regional loss to Dallas Baptist—his last start—after allowing four runs and four hits in a regional loss to South Carolina.
He found his groove Sunday, striking out the side in the fourth inning.
Chad "Cheese" Dallas was more successful than Abbott was heading into this matchup, having fanned 12 while giving up two runs and five hits against LSU on June 12. And despite the blip on the radar that was Michaels' first home run of the year, he kept pace with Abbott, matching the effort to send the side down on strikes in the top of the fifth.
At that point, he had just five total balls.
But Virginia finally got through to him in the top of the seventh, when Michaels tacked on an RBI single, then scored a run of his own on a Chris Newell single to make it 3-0.
Dallas was yanked for Sean Hunley, finishing the day with eight hits, four earned runs and four strikeouts through 6.1 innings.
Hunley gave up three hits and another run in his first 0.2 innings, facing four batters.
With a comfortable lead, the Cavaliers elected to pull Abbott after six innings. He finished the day with 10 strikeouts and two walks, giving up five hits.
Of course, it was Michaels who scored the final run of the day in the bottom of the ninth to seal the deal for the Cavaliers.
Mississippi State 2, Texas 1
The second game was a rematch from the first game of the season, when Mississippi State defeated Texas 8-3 on Feb. 20—led by Will Bednar on the hill.
Both teams had a fairly similar run to this point after that, with the Bulldogs entering the matchup at 45-16 and Texas coming in at 47-15.
The Longhorns, who have the most CWS appearances in history at 37, rode a perfect 5-0 streak through the NCAA tournament to reach this game, while Mississippi State took the longer road, needing three games to best Notre Dame and earn the trip to Omaha.
On Sunday, the first two innings were quiet affairs, with Mississippi State's Scotty Dubrule the only base runner as he reached on a throwing error by Texas shortstop Trey Faltine. But there was no two-out rally to be had as a flyout nailed the next batter.
Again, Bednar was dealing for MSU, striking out five of the six batters he faced through his first two innings on the hill to keep things moving.
The Bulldogs struck first on a two-out single by Rowdey Jordan in the top of the third, but Texas managed to get the out and end the inning, putting Bednar back on the hill for more.
In the bottom of the third, he fanned the first two batters before the Longhorns got their first baserunner, when Bednar hit left fielder Eric Kennedy. But it was no matter for Bednar, who struck out his next batter to bring his total to eight after three innings.
It was after that when the scoring started. A sacrifice fly from Scotty Dubrule scored a run from Kamren James, who reached on a walk, and a two-out triple from Brad Cumbest scored Luke Hancock to make it a two-run lead.
That was all Mississippi State needed with its pitching.
Bednar was brilliant with 15 strikeouts and one hit allowed during six shutout innings. It took an impressive outing to outdo counterpart Ty Madden, who allowed just the two runs while striking out 10 in seven innings of work.
Texas finally scored off relief pitcher Landon Sims when Mike Antico launched a solo home run in the ninth inning to cut the deficit in half. The rally continued with two singles with two outs, but Sims retired Douglas Hodo III with runners on the corner to preserve the win in dramatic fashion.
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