OMAHA, Neb. — Vanderbilt will advance to the College World Series finals after North Carolina State was forced to drop out because of covid-19 protocols, the NCAA announced early Saturday.
NC State, which upset top seed Arkansas to advance to Omaha, had only 13 players available during its 3-1 loss to the Commodores on Friday. The teams were scheduled to meet again Saturday afternoon in a winner-take-all Bracket 1 final.
The NCAA Division I Baseball Committee declared that game a no-contest.
“This decision was made based on the recommendation of the Championship Medical Team and the Douglas County Health Department,” the NCAA said in a statement. "As a result, Vanderbilt will advance to the CWS Finals.
"The NCAA and the committee regret that NC State’s student-athletes and coaching staff will not be able to continue in the championship in which they earned the right to participate. Because of privacy issues, we cannot provide further details.”
Vanderbilt returns to the finals for a second straight time. The Commodores won the 2019 CWS. There was no tournament last year because of the pandemic.
The Commodores will meet Mississippi State or Texas in the best-of-three finals starting Monday.
NC State was missing four starting position players and had only 13 of its 27 players available for the game, which was delayed an hour after the NCAA said it needed time to complete “health and safety protocols.” NC State said “several players” had entered the covid-19 protocol.
After the game, North Carolina State coach Elliott Avent grew frustrated and wouldn't answer directly when asked if he or the baseball program encouraged players to be vaccinated.
“My job is to teach them baseball, make sure they get an education and keep them on the right track forward,” he said. “But I don’t try to indoctrinate my kids with my values or my opinions. Obviously, we talk about a lot of things. But these are young men that can make their own decisions and that’s what they did.”
Avent rolled his eyes when asked if he's been vaccinated.
“If you want to talk baseball, we can talk baseball,” he said. “If you want to talk politics or stuff like that, you can go talk to my head of sports medicine, Rob Murphy.”
NC State did not immediately respond to a request for an interview with Murphy.
The NCAA does not require athletes, coaches and other staff working closely with a team to be tested for covid-19 if they are fully vaccinated and showing no symptoms. Those who are not vaccinated must be tested at NCAA championships. Tests are done every other day at the CWS.
Avent said he found out there was a problem 45 minutes to an hour before the game. He told ESPN during an in-game interview that players not with the team were getting tested Friday afternoon and, if the results were negative, would have a chance to play in the rematch Saturday.
The regulars in the lineup were Austin Murr, who moved from first to left field; Jonny Butler, who moved from left to center; Luca Tresh at his usual catcher spot; Devonte Brown in his usual spot in right field; and Vojtech Mensik, who moved from third base to shortstop.
Carson Falksken played second in place of J.T. Jarrett, Eddie Eisert was designated hitter instead of Terrell Tatum, DeAngelo Giles moved into Vojtech's spot at third and Sam Highfill, the No. 2 starting pitcher, played first base.
Avent said he gave his available players the choice to play or forfeit Friday. They all wanted to play, he said.
Avent told reporters Monday an illness was running through the team but made no mention of it possibly being covid-19. He said associate head coach Chris Hart had been sick for five or six days and that second baseman J.T. Jarrett and pitcher Cameron Cotter weren’t feeling well.
The pandemic heavily disrupted college sports over the past year and three teams dropped out of an NCAA championship event because of covid-19: The VCU men’s basketball team, the Michigan men’s ice hockey team and the Rice women’s volleyball team.
Texas 8, Mississippi State 5
Ivan Melendez hit a tie-breaking three-run homer in the ninth inning, and Texas forced a second bracket final against Mississippi State with an 8-5 College World Series victory in a game that ended early Saturday after a lengthy rain delay.
The No. 2 national seed Longhorns (50-16) won their third straight elimination game and will go to the best-of-three finals next week if they can beat the Bulldogs (47-17) again Saturday night.
Mississippi State had scored three runs in the eighth to tie it 5-5 before Mike Antico drew a leadoff walk against Brandon Smith starting the ninth. Parker Stinnett came on and walked Zach Zubia before Melendez sent a 3-2 pitch deep into the left-center bleachers.
Following another walk, light rain turned heavy and the grounds crew rolled out the tarp to begin a delay lasting 2 hours, 27 minutes.
Melendez's homer was his second game-winning hit in less than 24 hours. He had the tie-breaking base hit in the eighth inning in a 6-2 victory over Virginia in a game that ended early Friday.
Melendez had entered the Virginia game 3 for his last 19 at-bats with no RBIs. The All-Big 12 designated hitter is 4 for 10 with a double, homer and five RBIs since.
Texas reliever Tanner Witt, who pitched 5 2/3 innings of shutout relief against Tennessee on Tuesday, encountered control problems after a smooth seventh against the Bulldogs.
He walked three straight to bring in one run, and after Aaron Nixon entered with the bases loaded, Brad Cumbest's hard liner off second baseman Mitchell Daly's glove drove in two more.
Ty Madden was sharp for a second straight start for Texas. He struck out 10 in seven innings in a 2-1 loss to MSU on Sunday. In that game, Bulldogs ace Will Bednar struck out 15 and Texas fanned a CWS-record 21 times.
This time Madden held the Bulldogs to one hit and no runs over his last five innings after MSU took a quick 2-0 lead.
The Longhorns took their first lead in the fifth on Mike Antico’s single, and they added two more runs in the seventh after MSU center fielder Rowdey Jordan lost track of Trey Faltine’s high fly to start the inning. Faldine ended up on second with a double and scored on Antico’s single, and Melendez’s base hit made it a three-run game.