2021 College World Series

2021 College World Series
2021 College World Series
Team (Wins)
Team (Wins)
Mississippi State (2)
Vanderbilt (1)
Dates	June 19–30
MOP	Will Bednar (Mississippi State)
Broadcast
Television	ESPN (United States – English)
TV announcers	Karl Ravech (play by play), Eduardo Pérez, Kyle Peterson (color), Kris Budden (field reporter)

The 2021 College World Series was the final stage of the 2021 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament held from June 19–30 at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha. This marked the 74th edition of the College World Series and 71st time the event is being held in Omaha, Nebraska after the 2020 tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

The tournament featured eight teams in two double-elimination brackets with the two winners meeting in a best-of-three championship series.^[1]

Background[]

The 2021 tournament ends the one-year hiatus left by the cancellation of the 2020 tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Originally, the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced that attendance at championship events would be restricted for all spring sports, including this year's CWS at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha, to 50% due to the ongoing pandemic, meaning just 12,000 spectators per game.^[2] However, on May 19, the NCAA announced that public health authorities would be in charge of placing restrictions on the baseball and softball championships. College World Series officials stated that crowds would return to full capacity.^[3]

Participants[]

School	Conference	Record (Conf)	Head Coach	Super Regional	Previous CWS Appearances	CWS Best Finish	CWS W-L Record
NC State	ACC	35–18 (19–14)	Elliott Avent	Fayetteville	2 (last: 2013)	3rd (1968)	3–4
Stanford	Pac–12	38–15 (17–10)	David Esquer	Lubbock	16 (last: 2008)	1st (1987, 1988)	40–29
Arizona	Pac–12	45–16 (21–9)	Jay Johnson	Tucson	17 (last: 2016)	1st (1976, 1980, 1986, 2012)	43–30
Vanderbilt	SEC	45–15 (19–10)	Tim Corbin	Nashville	4 (last: 2019)	1st (2014, 2019)	16–7
Tennessee	SEC	50–16 (20–10)	Tony Vitello	Knoxville	4 (last: 2005)	2nd (1951)	8–8
Virginia	ACC	35–25 (18–18)	Brian O'Connor	Columbia	5 (last: 2015)	1st (2015)	12–8
Mississippi State	SEC	45–16 (20–10)	Chris Lemonis	Starkville	11 (last: 2019)	2nd (2013)	13–22
Texas	Big 12	47–15 (17–7)	David Pierce	Austin	36 (last: 2018)	1st (1949, 1950, 1975, 1983, 2002, 2005)	85–61

Bracket[]

Seeds listed below indicate national seeds only

First round			Second round			Semifinals				Finals

	NC State	10

9	Stanford	4
				NC State	1

			4	Vanderbilt	0
5	Arizona	6

4	Vanderbilt	7¹²
							NC State	1	–

						4	Vanderbilt	3	–^[A]
9	Stanford	14

5	Arizona	5
			9	Stanford	5

			4	Vanderbilt	6



										4	Vanderbilt	8	2	0

										7	Mississippi State	2	13	9
3	Tennessee	0

	Virginia	6
				Virginia	5

			7	Mississippi State	6
7	Mississippi State	2

2	Texas	1
						7	Mississippi State	5	4

						2	Texas	8	3
3	Tennessee	4

2	Texas	8
			2	Texas	6

				Virginia	2

Game results[]

Date	Game	Winning team	Score	Losing team	Winning pitcher	Losing pitcher	Save	Notes
June 19	Game 1	NC State	10–4	Stanford	Reid Johnston (9–3)	Brendan Beck (9–2)	Evan Justice (12)	–
June 19	Game 2	Vanderbilt	7–6 ⁽¹²⁾	Arizona	Chris McElvain (5–1)	Vince Vannelle (5–3)	–	–
June 20	Game 3	Virginia	6–0	Tennessee	Andrew Abbott (9–6)	Chad Dallas (11–2)	Matt Wyatt (1)	–
June 20	Game 4	Mississippi State	2–1	Texas	Will Bednar (8–1)	Ty Madden (7–5)	Landon Sims (11)	–
June 21	Game 5	Stanford	14–5	Arizona	Alex Williams (5–2)	Garrett Irvin (6–3)	Jacob Palisch (2)	Arizona eliminated
June 21	Game 6	NC State	1–0	Vanderbilt	Sam Highfill (9–2)	Jack Leiter (10–4)	Evan Justice (13)	–
June 22	Game 7	Texas	8–4	Tennessee	Tanner Witt (5–0)	Sean Hunley (7–5)	–	Tennessee eliminated
June 22	Game 8	Mississippi State	6–5	Virginia	Cade Smith (3–0)	Stephen Schoch (4–2)	Landon Sims (12)	–
June 23	Game 9	Vanderbilt	6–5	Stanford	Luke Murphy (4–1)	Brendan Beck (9–3)	–	Stanford eliminated
June 24	Game 10	Texas	6–2	Virginia	Cole Quintanilla (5–0)	Matt Wyatt (4–2)	Aaron Nixon (9)	Virginia eliminated
June 25	Game 11	Vanderbilt	3–1	NC State	Kumar Rocker (14–3)	Garrett Payne (0–1)	Luke Murphy (9)	–
June 25	Game 12	Texas	8–5	Mississippi State	Aaron Nixon (4–3)	Brandon Smith (4–4)	–	–
June 26	Game 13	Vanderbilt	WO	NC State	Game declared no contest			NC State eliminated
June 26	Game 14	Mississippi State	4–3	Texas	Landon Sims (5–0)	Cole Quintanilla (5–1)	–	Texas eliminated
Finals
June 28	Game 1	Vanderbilt	8–2	Mississippi State	Jack Leiter (11–4)	Christian MacLeod (6–6)	Nick Maldonado (9)	Vanderbilt 1–0
June 29	Game 2	Mississippi State	13–2	Vanderbilt	Preston Johnson (4–0)	Christian Little (3–2)	–	Tied 1–1
June 30	Game 3	Mississippi State	9–0	Vanderbilt	Will Bednar (9–1)	Kumar Rocker (14–4)	Landon Sims (13)	Mississippi State 2–1

Finals[]

Game 1[]

June 28, 2021 6:00 p.m. (CDT) at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Mississippi State	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	5	0
Vanderbilt	7	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	X	8	5	0
WP: Jack Leiter (11–4) LP: Christian MacLeod (6–6) Sv: Nick Maldonado (9) Home runs: MSU: Kamren James (12) VAN: Jayson Gonzalez (9) Attendance: 24,052 Boxscore

Game 2[]

June 29, 2021 6:00 p.m. (CDT) at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Vanderbilt	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	4	3
Mississippi State	1	0	4	1	2	0	5	0	X	13	14	0
WP: Preston Johnson (4–0) LP: Christian Little (3–2) Home runs: VAN: CJ Rodriguez (5), Maxwell Romero Jr. (4) MSU: None Attendance: 24,122 Boxscore

Game 3[]

June 30, 2021 6:00 p.m. (CDT) at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Mississippi State	1	2	0	0	2	0	4	0	0	9	12	0
Vanderbilt	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	3
WP: Will Bednar (9–1) LP: Kumar Rocker (14–4) Sv: Landon Sims (13) Home runs: MSU: Kellum Clark (5), Logan Tanner (15) VAN: None Attendance: 24,052 Boxscore

Composite line score[]

2021 College World Series Finals (2–1): Mississippi State wins.


Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Mississippi State	3	2	4	2	4	0	9	0	0	24	31	0
Vanderbilt	7	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	10	10	6
Home runs: MSSU: Kellum Clark (1), Kamren James (1), Logan Tanner (1) VAN: Jayson Gonzalez (1), CJ Rodriguez (1), Maxwell Romero Jr. (1) Total attendance: 72,226 Average attendance: 24,075

All-Tournament Team[]

The following players were members of the College World Series All-Tournament Team.^[5]

Position	Player	School
P & MOP	Will Bednar	Mississippi State
P	Jack Leiter	Vanderbilt
C	Logan Tanner	Mississippi State
1B	Luke Hancock	Mississippi State
2B	Tim Tawa	Stanford
3B	Zack Gelof	Virginia
SS	Lane Forsythe	Mississippi State
OF	Tanner Allen	Mississippi State
	Brock Jones	Stanford
	Rowdey Jordan	Mississippi State
DH	Ivan Melendez	Texas

Notes[]

^ Game declared no contest due to COVID-19 protocols with NC State. Vanderbilt advanced in the tournament.^[4]

References[]

^ "2021 College World Series schedule". National Collegiate Athletic Association. April 30, 2021. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
^ Paniagua, Hunter (April 23, 2021). "NCAA limits College World Series attendance to 50% capacity". Omaha World-Herald. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
^ Dvorak, Gina (May 19, 2021). "College World Series planning for full-capacity unmasked crowds". MSN. Omaha, Nebraska. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
^ "Vanderbilt-NC State College World Series game ruled no-contest due to COVID-19 protocols". NCAA.com. June 26, 2021. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
^ @NCAACWS (July 1, 2021). "2021 Men's College World Series - All Tournament Team" (Tweet) – via Twitter.

External links[]

NCAA Baseball Championship Information

[COVID-5] Game declared no contest due to COVID-19 protocols with NC State. Vanderbilt advanced in the tournament.^[4]

[1] "2021 College World Series schedule". National Collegiate Athletic Association. April 30, 2021. Retrieved May 17, 2021.

[2] Paniagua, Hunter (April 23, 2021). "NCAA limits College World Series attendance to 50% capacity". Omaha World-Herald. Retrieved May 17, 2021.

[3] Dvorak, Gina (May 19, 2021). "College World Series planning for full-capacity unmasked crowds". MSN. Omaha, Nebraska. Retrieved May 20, 2021.

[4] "Vanderbilt-NC State College World Series game ruled no-contest due to COVID-19 protocols". NCAA.com. June 26, 2021. Retrieved June 26, 2021.

[6] @NCAACWS (July 1, 2021). "2021 Men's College World Series - All Tournament Team" (Tweet) – via Twitter.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[A]

[5]

[4]

v t College World Series
Ballparks	Hyames Field (1947, 1948) Lawrence–Dumont Stadium (1949) Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium (1950–2010) TD Ameritrade Park Omaha (2011–present)
Tournaments	1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 ~~2020~~ 2021 2022
Broadcasters	CBS television coverage
Most Outstanding Players NCAA Division I Baseball Championship