Tonight's Do or Die CWS Game 3 Is the Best College Baseball Has to Offer
We're down to one game for the whole thing. Vanderbilt is going to have Kumar Rocker on the bump. Mississippi State will throw Will Bednar and have Landon Sims waiting in the wings. This baseball game is going to be badass.
It's a shame we had to have the NC State situation happen, because I think anyone with half a brain agrees Vandy did not deserve to get to this point in the manner it did. And everything else about this College World Series has been phenomenal. But the NCAA's decision was what it was, so all we can do is enjoy this moment for what it is now that we're here.
And while I do not want to see Vanderbilt win a fraudulent national championship, I am incredibly excited to watch Rocker go up against an MSU offense that put 13 runs on the board last night to keep its season alive. We have one of the two best arms in college baseball on the hill for the final start of his career in a Game 3 of the CWS Championship Series against a school which has never won a national title in any team sport. It doesn't get much better than that.
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And when Rocker has gotten the ball in an elimination game, he's delivered.
All eyes will certainly be on Rocker tonight, but don't sleep on Bednar for the Bulldogs. In his two starts in this College World Series, both against Texas, Bednar has gone 12.1 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 22 K and 3 BB. He's a stud in his own right who is definitely capable of matching Rocker pitch for pitch.
Tonight is going to be awesome. TD Ameritrade Park is going to be rocking with Mississippi State fans. Vanderbilt knows it's playing the role of the heel not only to that ballpark, but to the entire country. It's going to be a knock-down, drag-out war with some of the best arms in the country taking the mound against offenses which have each scored at least eight runs in a game already this series.
Let's go.