College World Series 2021: Finals Dates, Start Times, Live Stream, TV Schedule

For the third time since 2011, two SEC teams will do battle in the College World Series championship round. 

The Vanderbilt Commodores have been a constant fixture in the best-of-three series in Omaha, Nebraska, since 2014. They are the reigning champion of the event and have the most championship round appearances in that span. 

Mississippi State is in the final round for the first time since 2013, when it lost to the UCLA Bruins. It is searching for its first-ever College World Series title in its 12th Omaha appearance. 

Vanderbilt beat Mississippi State twice during their three-game setback in April. That could be a good sign for the Commodores, but Monday's Game 1 comes with much different circumstances than the opener in that set of games. 

College World Series Championship Series Info

Game 1: Monday, June 28 (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2)

Game 2: Tuesday, June 29 (7 p.m. ET, ESPN)

Game 3 (if necessary): Wednesday, June 30 (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2)

Games can be live-streamed on the ESPN app and ESPN.com.

Preview

Monday's opener is unlike any other Game 1 the teams have been involved in all season.

Neither side will have their aces at their disposal. Vanderbilt's Kumar Rocker should be ready for Game 3 on full rest, and Will Bednar could come back for Mississippi State on Wednesday as well after he pitched on Saturday. 

Jack Leiter will toe the rubber for Vanderbilt against Christian MacLeod for the Bulldogs. The rest of the pitching rotations have yet to be determined. 

Leiter suffered his first loss of the regular season against Mississippi State on April 24. That was the only game the Commodores lost in the three-game series. 

Mississippi State got four earned runs and six hits off Leiter over five innings and extended the advantage with three runs in the sixth and seventh innings. 

Even if the Bulldogs get off to a fast start, that does not guarantee they will come away with a national championship. 

Vanderbilt is one of four winners in the last five years to lose Game 1 and then come back to win Games 2 and 3. Part of that has to do with better pitching being available in the latter stages of the championship series. 

For this opener, Vanderbilt has its No. 2 starter available because it did not have to play on Saturday because of the no contest handed out by the NCAA after NC State's COVID-19 issues. 

MacLeod started the opening contest versus Vandy on April 23, and he did not get out of the fourth inning. He has not been the team's ace down the stretch. Bednar has been the star of the rotation. 

MacLeod did not last long in his last appearance. He gave up four earned runs in 1.1 innings of work against the Virginia Cavaliers. 

Ideally, the Bulldogs would love to get five or six innings out of MacLeod before turning the ball over to Landon Sims and the bullpen. 

The runs earned off Leiter and MacLeod in the April series and MacLeod's poor outing in Omaha could lead to more runs scored on Monday than in the rest of the championship series. 

When Vanderbilt captured the 2019 title over the Michigan Wolverines, 11 runs were scored in Game 1. In Vandy's 2014 title victory over Virginia, 17 runs were plated in the opener. 

If that trend holds, we could see the bats dictate the direction of the contest before the powerful pitchers enter the fray later in the series. 

Statistics obtained from D1Baseball.com.