For the third time in as many NCAA Baseball Tournaments, the Mississippi State Bulldogs have made it to the College World Series. Mississippi State is headed back to Omaha after beating the Notre Dame Fighting in three games in the Starkville Super Regional.
The Bulldogs were able to take game one from the Fighting Irish after Notre Dame committed a myriad of mistakes. Mississippi State took advantage of Notre Dame’s errors and walked away with a 9-8 win.
In the second game of the Super Regional, things fell apart for State. MSU was humbled and fell 9-1. Thankfully, the third game against the Fighting Irish was much better for Mississippi State.
The Bulldogs came out on top of Notre Dame, winning 11-7 Monday evening.
Game three featured a fast start for Mississippi State as the Bulldogs jumped out and claimed a 7-1 lead over Notre Dame thanks to a six-run second inning.
That six-run scoring fest of a second inning featured just four hits from Mississippi State as the Bulldogs took advantage of multiple walks and scored with timely hitting. The inning was highlighted by Logan Tanner’s three-run shot to left center field.
And that 7-1 lead would’ve been enough for the Bulldogs to win, but MSU kept scoring.
State tacked on another run in the bottom of the third and then two more in the bottom of the fourth to give the home team a 10-2 lead over the visiting Fighting Irish.
Those runs helped make things easier for State’s pitchers as Notre Dame did everything it could to get back in the game. MSU, at the end of the fourth inning, had a solid eight-run lead.
But that lead was cut into in the top of the fifth.
Notre Dame got three runs added on to their side of the scoreboard as they were able to do some damage once Stone Simmons took over for Houston Harding.
Thanks to three hits, a walk and an error, Notre Dame set the score at 10-5 in the top of the fifth. The Bulldogs were still on top by a notable margin, but it was closer than what many State fans were comfortable with.
Though, things could have certainly been worse and Simmons kept things from getting out of control, which allowed Landon Sims to take over with a solid lead.
Mississippi State got a run back in the bottom of the fifth, giving MSU an 11-5 lead, and then turned things over to Sims to finish things off.
And Sims did plenty to keep things out of Notre Dame’s reach.
In 4.0 innings, Sims faced 15 batters and struck out four. He gave up a couple of runs as Notre Dame’s Niko Kavadas launched a home run to Louisville, but he responded and shut things down.
And thanks to the complete team effort through the Super Regional, Mississippi State is now headed to Omaha yet again.
Mississippi State is one of three teams from the Southeastern Conference to make it into the 2021 College World Series. The Bulldogs have as much a shot as any other group to win a national title and in Omaha they’ll be looking to be the first team from MSU to win a national championship.
Here’s where things get real interesting.
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