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No. 7 Mississippi State baseball opens College World Series play against No. 2 Texas

Sunday’s first pitch is set for 6 p.m.

By Collin Wilmes
Mississippi State Athletics

OMAHA, Neb. — The No. 7 overall seed Mississippi State baseball team is set to begin its College World Series run on Sunday at 6 p.m. CT against No. 2 Texas at TD Ameritrade Park. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

The Bulldogs (45-16) made it to Omaha with two wins over No. 10 Notre Dame after sweeping their way through the Starkville Regional. MSU will be playing in its third straight CWS and 12th overall.

Senior Tanner Allen leads MSU with a .392 batting average, 91 hits, 62 RBIs and 64 runs. Senior Rowdey Jordan is batting .326 with 77 hits, 70 runs and 43 RBIs.

MSU sophomore starting pitcher Will Bednar and junior starting pitcher Christian MacLeod lead the team with 113 strikeouts apiece.

The Longhorns (47-15) won the Big 12 title with a 17-7 conference record and swept both the Austin Regional and Austin Super Regional to get to their 37th CWS.

Offensively, Texas is led by redshirt sophomore Ivan Melendez and freshman Mitchell Daly with .321 batting averages. Melendez has recorded 60 hits, 46 RBIs and a team-high 12 home runs. Daly has recorded 62 hits and 31 RBIs.

Redshirt junior Cam Williams owns a team-high 20 doubles to go with 11 home runs and 47 RBIs while hitting .303. Redshirt junior Zach Zubia leads the team with 64 hits and 57 RBIs on a .300 batting average.

The Longhorn pitching staff has compiled a 2.89 ERA, which ranks No. 1 nationally. The starting pitching trio of redshirt freshman Pete Hansen (1.84), redshirt sophomore Ty Madden (2.41) and redshirt junior Tristan Stevens (2.97) all rank in the top six in ERA in the Big 12.

MSU and Texas will be meeting for the 11th time in program history on Sunday. The Bulldogs knotted the all-time series at 5-5 with an 8-3 win to open the 2021 season.

Sunday, June 20 (6 p.m. CT)

Probable Starters:

MSU: RHP Will Bednar (7-1, 3.53 ERA)

UT: RHP Ty Madden (7-4, 2.41 ERA)

TV: ESPN2

Live Video: https://hailst.at/3vGRqZV

Live Audio: https://hailst.at/audio

Live Stats: http://hailst.at/StatBroadcast

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