2021 College World Series Schedule, Scores, TV, Analysis & More

This will be Baseball America’s home for all things College World Series over the next two weeks. Below, find the schedule, and we’ll also add additional preview material in the coming hours and days. 

If you’re looking to get caught up, our regionals analysis is here, and our super regionals analysis is here. 

DATE	TIME	TEAM	TEAM	WINNER/GAME	SCORE	TV
Sat 6/19	2 p.m. ET	Stanford	NC State	NC State	10-4	ESPN
Sat 6/19	7 p.m. ET	Vanderbilt	Arizona	Vanderbilt	7-6	ESPN
Sun 6/20	2 p.m. ET	Tennessee	Virginia	Virginia	6-0	ESPN2
Sun 6/20	7 p.m. ET	Texas	Mississippi State	Mississippi State	2-1	ESPN2
Mon 6/21	2 p.m. ET	Stanford	Arizona	Stanford	14-5	ESPNU
Mon 6/21	7 p.m. ET	NC State	Vanderbilt	NC State	1-0	ESPN
Tue 6/22	2 p.m. ET	Tennessee	Texas	Texas	8-4	ESPNU
Tue 6/22	7 p.m. ET	Virginia	Mississippi State	Mississippi State	6-5	ESPN2
Wed 6/23	7 p.m. ET	Stanford	Vanderbilt	Vanderbilt	6-5	ESPN
Thu 6/24	7 p.m. ET	Virginia	Texas	Texas	6-2	ESPN2
Fri 6/25	2 p.m. ET	NC State	Vanderbilt	Vanderbilt	3-1	ESPN2
Fri 6/25	7 p.m. ET	Mississippi State	Texas	Texas	8-5	ESPN
Sat 6/26	7 p.m. ET	Mississippi State	Texas	Mississippi State	4-3	ESPN2 (if necessary)
COLLEGE WORLD SERIES FINAL
DATE	TIME	TEAM	TEAM	WINNER/GAME	SCORE	TV
Mon 6/28	7 p.m. ET	Vanderbilt	Mississippi State	Vanderbilt	8-2	ESPN2
Tue 6/29	7 p.m. ET	Vanderbilt	Mississippi State	Game 2		ESPN
Wed 6/30	7 p.m. ET	Vanderbilt	Mississippi State	Game 3		ESPN2 (if necessary)

 

DAILY ANALYSIS

Finals

Mississippi State lefthander Christian MacLeod on Monday struggled with his control in game 1 of the finals and Vanderbilt took advantage in a big way. The Commodores scored seven runs in the first and knocked MacLeod out of the game after six of the first eight batters reached base. They scored seven runs in the inning and with All-American righthander Jack Leiter on the mound, that was more than enough.

Leiter delivered a quality start in what is likely to be his final game in a Vanderbilt uniform, holding Mississippi State to two runs on three hits and three walks in six innings. He struck out eight batters and improved to 11-4, 2.13 on the season with 179 strikeouts in 110 innings. Righthander Nick Maldonado threw the final three innings to close out the victory and leaves the Commodores pitching staff well-positioned going into Game 2.

Friday

North Carolina State, down 14 players due to at least one Covid-19 positive test and subsequent contact tracing, put up a fight against Vanderbilt in the first bracket final of the day but ultimately came up short in a 3-1 loss. 

Righthander Garrett Payne, who came into the game having thrown 8.2 innings on the season, pitched well, giving up two hits and three runs (one earned) in five innings. Righthander Dalton Feeney, who hasn’t seen much action of late, also tossed four scoreless innings of relief. 

A Wolfpack lineup that was missing four regulars, however, wasn’t able to get enough offense going to get the job done. Vanderbilt righthander Kumar Rocker gave up five hits and one run, striking out 11 along the way, in six innings. Three relievers held down the Pack late, with righthander Luke Murphy throwing the final 2.1 frames. The two teams will face off again on Saturday at 1 p.m. for a spot in the championship series. 

Thursday

In an elimination game Thursday night, Texas sent Virginia packing with a 6-2 win. Both teams got good pitching. Texas lefthander Pete Hansen gave up five hits and two runs in 5.2 innings, with righthanders Cole Quintanilla and Aaron Nixon throwing 3.1 scoreless innings in relief. Virginia got seven innings from starter Mike Vasil, who gave up four hits and two runs (one earned).

Tied 2-2 in the top of the eighth, the Longhorns took the lead with a run on an Ivan Melendez RBI single, but the big blow came an inning later, when Zach Zubia laced a bases-loaded double into the gap in left-center to gave UT a more comfortable 6-2 lead. The win advanced Texas to the bracket final Friday night against Mississippi State. The loss ends Virginia’s season after a wild ride that saw the Cavaliers come back from 4-11 in the ACC in the middle of the season to get to the CWS. 

Wednesday

Vanderbilt staved off elimination with a wild, ninth-inning comeback against Stanford. The Commodores trailed all game but fought back after a rocky start to make it a one-run game going into the ninth. After going down to their last strike, they engineered a comeback on a walk by Javier Vaz, a pinch-hit single from Spencer Jones, a game-tying single from Enrique Bradfield and a walk-off wild pitch. Vanderbilt now will take on North Carolina State in the bracket final.

For Stanford, it’s hard to imagine a more heartbreaking way to lose the game. The Cardinal went to ace Brendan Beck to close the game out and the All-American nearly finished the job, before everything spun away from him at the end of the ninth. 

Tuesday

Mississippi advanced to the bracket final with a come-from-behind 6-5 win over Virginia. Cavaliers righthander Griff McGarry was cruising early and took a no-hitter into the eighth inning and four early runs had UVA up 4-0 early, but in the nick of time, the MSU bats woke up and turned the game on its head. 

DH Kellum Clark broke up the no-hitter and shutout simultaneously with a two-run homer in the eighth to make it 4-2. After Virginia went to the bullpen, the Bulldogs kept the pressure on. Right fielder Tanner Allen hit a three-run blast to grab a 5-4 lead, and a Scotty Dubrule RBI single later made it 6-4. That run ended up being vitally important after Virginia’s Chris Newell hit a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth to pull his team within a run. 

On the mound, it was an all-hands-on-deck performance. After starter Christian MacLeod lasted just 1.1 innings, Mississippi State used seven relievers, finishing with Landon Sims getting the final four outs. 

In Tuesdays’s first game, Texas eliminated Tennessee with an 8-4 win. The teams traded blows early, with the teams tied 4-4 after the top of the fourth, but two things changed the game from there. First, the Longhorns plated three runs in the bottom of the fourth to grab a 7-4 lead. 

The second key was that Texas righthander Tanner Witt, who came on for starter Tristan Stevens in the fourth inning, settled in and got into cruise control. He finished with 5.2 scoreless innings, giving up just three hits, and once he got into a groove, it never truly felt like the Volunteers got back into the game. 

It ends up being a disappointing 0-2 showing for Tennessee in Omaha, but the Vols certainly hope this postseason run is the start of something bigger for a program that was making its return to national relevancy this season.

Monday

North Carolina State on Monday night delivered the biggest upset of the College World Series to this point, beating Vanderbilt and Jack Leiter, 1-0. Righthander Sam Highfill threw 7.1 scoreless innings, holding Vanderbilt to two hits and two walks, and lefthander Evan Justice got the final five outs to finish the shutout. It was the first time Vanderbilt had been shutout since 2019.

Leiter was masterful himself, striking out 15 batters in eight innings and holding NC State to four hits and a walk. But one of those hits was a solo home run from Terrell Tatum in the fifth inning, which proved to be the difference in the game. Tatum’s home run was NC State’s first hit of the game.

NC State now advances to Friday’s bracket final, where it will await the winner of Wednesday’s elimination game between Stanford and Vanderbilt. The Commodores are now facing elimination for the first time in this year’s NCAA Tournament and have lost the advantage their 1-2 punch of Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter presents. To advance, Vanderbilt will need someone beyond their top two starters and top relievers to step up.

In the first elimination game of the College World Series, Stanford’s offense blitzed Arizona pitching on the way to a 14-5 win. 

After hitting the ball hard but having nothing to show for it for the first two innings, the Cardinal broke through with a seven-run third inning, punctuated by a mammoth two-run homer from Tommy Troy. Stanford then backed up that big inning with a three-run fourth and a four-run seventh that included a three-run homer for Brock Jones. 

On the mound, righthander Alex Williams gave up four runs in 5.1 innings, but lefthander Jacob Palisch kept the Wildcats from making any sort of comeback by giving up one run on three hits in 3.2 innings. 

With the loss, Arizona’s season is over. That’s a disappointing end for a team that was one or two plays away from beating Vanderbilt two days ago, but it also doesn’t overshadow everything this team accomplished by winning the Pac-12 regular-season title and getting back to the College World Series. 

Sunday

Mississippi State got a record-setting pitching performance on the way to a 2-1 win over Texas Sunday night to move into the winner’s bracket and a matchup with Virginia on Tuesday night. 

Righthander Will Bednar struck out 15 in his six-plus innings, breaking an MSU College World Series record, which was previously 10. He allowed four hits and one walk, and held the Longhorns scoreless. Landon Sims came on in relief of Bednar and threw three innings. He cruised through the first two, striking out five batters of his own, before hitting snags in the ninth. Mike Antico led off the frame with a solo homer and later Texas had the tying run on third with two outs, but a groundout to second ended the threat. 

The Longhorns’ Ty Madden was nearly as good, but the Bulldogs pushed two runs across in the top of the fourth, one on a sac fly off the bat of Scotty Dubrule and another on a pop fly triple by Brad Cumbest that fell just inside the right field foul line. On just about any other day, Madden’s performance is probably good enough for a win, but Sunday was not one of those days with what Bednar did. 

In Sunday’s opener, Virginia won all the big moments against Tennessee, consistently coming up with big hits and big pitches, on the way to a 6-0 victory. The Cavaliers got a strong start from lefthander Andrew Abbott, who struck out 10 batters in six innings and pitched out of a few key jams. Catcher Logan Michaels gave them an early lead with his first home run of the season, a solo homer in the third inning, and finished the day 3-for-4 with three runs.

Tennessee’s long-awaited return to Omaha – Sunday was its first CWS game since 2005 – was a tough one. The Volunteers had six hits – but despite all the power in their lineup, all six hits were singles. They stranded eight runners and went just 3-for-16 with runners on base.

Saturday

Vanderbilt battled back from an early deficit against Arizona to grind out a 7-6 victory in 12 innings. It was a heavyweight fight, with the Wildcats’ powerful offense landing some early punches against All-American righthander Kumar Rocker before the Commodores’ own offense went to work in the middle innings. Ultimately, in a battle of the bullpens, Vanderbilt’s relievers rose to the occasion and helped push the Commodores into the winner’s bracket.

The loss was a tough one for Arizona, which had an early lead, but couldn’t quite hang on. The Wildcats’ loss sets up an all-Pac-12 elimination game Monday against Stanford. 

In the first game of the College World Series, North Carolina State jumped out to an early lead against Stanford ace Brendan Beck, an All-American, and didn’t look back en route to a 10-4 victory. The Wolfpack scored six runs in the first four innings and hit two home runs off Beck – an ideal start to the CWS.

NC State righthander Reid Johnston held Stanford to one run in six innings before running into trouble in the seventh. Closer Evan Justice got the Wolfpack out of a jam in the seventh and then finished the game with three scoreless innings. It was a familiar script for NC State and it netted a critical victory.