Down and not out was 7th-ranked Mississippi State

In Mississippi State’s ballpark in Starkville, they set attendance records. The overflow of fans with wild maroon-wearing shirts and pants, ringing cowbells, rowdy hail State and Bulldog chants, and numerous outside tailgating with food for friends, family and of course the closely-knit fans.

And they are all hungry with hopes it can finally win the College Division I Baseball World Series. And being this is its 14th appearance on the biggest stage in college baseball, it’s turned into the same thing every time, arrive and leave with no trophy to hoist.

But in their opening game here at TD Armeritrade Park in Omaha, Neb., the packed section of Bulldogs fans had reasons to cheer their loudest when sophomore right-hander Will Bednar struck out a record 15 Texas batters in six innings of a 2-1 win. When he departed, reliever Landon Sims fanned six over the final three frames.

And so Mississippi State put its stellar pitching on display and proved it can win close ones as it met up with surprising, unranked, unseeded Virginia Tuesday afternoon after the underdog Cavaliers blanked 3rd-ranked Tennessee, 6-0.

But this time it was the hurling of Virginia junior righty Griff McGarry that brought seven zero innings of as he was tossing a no-hitter with eight strikeouts and two walks. The Cavs fans were in full voice, the Bulldogs fans were just stunned as their team trailed 4-0 heading into the top of the eighth.

Quickly, the momentum swung from the Virginia dugout to that Mississippi State dugout. Boom once, boom twice as a walk was followed by Kellun Clark’s clout of a 1-1 fastball into the stands in left field. No more no-hitter, and now the deficit was 4-2. Next, a hit-batter and walk brought up Tanner Allen and he belted McGarry’s first pitch, a hanging curve, far over the fence in right-center field and it was now 5-4 Bulldogs.

Exit McGarry, enter reliever Logan Tanner, and with two down, and a walk and hit-batter brought in reliever Stephen Schoch, and Scottie Dubrule lined the second pitch to left to up the advantage to 6-4.

It proved to be a key insurance run after the Cavaliers Chris Newell hit a solo shot in the last of the frame.

Virginia can not afford another loss as it goes against also 1-1 Texas, while Mississippi State meets up with North Carolina State in the winner’s bracket clash of 2-0 teams. The other remaining teams are 9th-ranked Stanford (39-16) and 4th-ranked Vanderbilt, both 1-1 and meet up with survival on the line.

Just like that, Mississippi State had rallied its fans in the stands, entering the 8th with zero runs, zero hits, down four runs, and excited it up 6-4.

Both teams are still in the hunt, but Virginia can’t afford another loss as it now faces also 1-1 Texas, which eliminated Tennessee, 8-4, in the Monday morninggame, on