Will Bednar Cements His Mississippi State Legacy At College World Series

Image credit: Mississippi State righthander Will Bednar (Photo courtesy of Mississippi State)

Will Bednar’s Sunday night on the mound against Texas started innocently enough. The Mississippi State righthander got Mike Antico to lead off the game with a weak pop up to short. It wasn’t any indication of what was to follow in the opening round of the College World Series.

After that pop up, Bednar struck out the next seven batters he faced and eight of the next nine. Only a hit batter interrupted his streak. Bednar didn’t let up from there, either. He went on to strike out 15 batters in six innings, holding the Longhorns to one hit, one walk and one hit batter. His 15 strikeouts were a personal best and a program record for the most strikeouts at the CWS.

For a time, it looked like Bednar might break the record for most strikeouts in a nine-inning CWS game, which stands at 17. But after he issued a leadoff walk in the seventh inning, Mississippi State coach Chris Lemonis brought in relief ace Landon Sims, who threw the final three innings to close out a 2-1 victory. Sims struck out six batters, and the combined total of 21 strikeouts for the Bulldogs set a CWS record.

Bednar’s performance was a masterpiece and will go down as one of the great starts in contemporary CWS history. After the game, Lemonis handed Bednar a game ball and told him as much.

“I just told him that’s one of the better performances ever here,” Lemonis said. “I mean, six innings, one hit, 15 punchies. Not many guys have come here and done that, because the talent level is so high.”

The talent in Omaha is incredibly high. Texas is the Big 12 champion and has an impressive lineup. The Longhorns on the mound countered Bednar with righthander Ty Madden, an All-American and projected first-round pick next month, and he delivered a strong start—striking out 10 batters and holding Mississippi State to two runs in seven innings.

Mississippi State had a talented lineup around Bednar. Right fielder Tanner Allen was named SEC player of the year and a first-team All-American, as was Sims.

But Bednar is part of the high level of talent in the Omaha field himself. His fastball reaches 97 mph, and he pairs it with a good slider. He controls both pitches well at his best and keeps hitters off balance. It’s a package that has him ranked No. 38 in the draft class and in the mix to be a first-round pick as a draft-eligible second-year player.

On Sunday, Bednar had everything working.

“I felt like it was a great performance, probably my best ever, especially on this big of a stage,” he said. “It was really cool. But I felt like fastball was playing really well up in the zone. And slider played really well, too.”

Bednar has grown into this performance over the course of the season. He was banged up to start the season and missed the first two weeks. He wasn’t ready to join the rotation until mid March, the week before conference play began. Steadily, he built up his endurance and in time became one of the keys to the Mississippi State rotation, pitching in the No. 2 role behind lefthander Christian Macleod.

Lately, however, Bednar has been Mississippi State’s best pitcher. With Sunday’s victory, he improved to 8-1, 3.26 with 128 strikeouts and 21 walks in 80 innings.

Bednar threw 109 pitches Sunday—one more than Lemonis wanted. After Bednar walked the leadoff batter in the seventh inning, Lemonis intended to go to Sims, but Bednar started the next hitter before he could signal to the bullpen—and for the third time in his last five starts crossed the 100-pitch mark. He had thrown that many pitches just once before this season. Lemonis said Bednar’s off-field work has been crucial to get him built up after beginning the season injured.

“He’s one of the strongest players on our team if you put him in the weight room,” Lemonis said. “He has the ability to handle it. And he works, just phenomenal worker.”

Bednar has also been working hard to throw more strikes. Interspersed with his deep outings have been a couple shorter starts. He went two innings in the SEC Tournament—a week to forget for Mississippi State—and was knocked out after three innings last week in super regionals against Notre Dame.

“Definitely the big thing was just working on continuing to improve fastball command and working on keeping the slider—trying to make sure I throw it for a strike and get it off the plate for a strikeout pitch,” he said.

Texas presented a good matchup for Bednar. The Longhorns have struck out 537 times this season—21% of their plate appearances—and he exploited their propensity to swing big and work deep in the count.

Texas coach David Pierce said the high-spin rate on Bednar’s fastball gave the Longhorns fits.

“Bednar, still haven’t figured him out,” Pierce said. “He’s a spin-rate guy. And the ball just doesn’t lose plane. Just seemed like we were swinging underneath it the entire game.”

The Longhorns never were able to adjust to Bednar. He struck out seven batters the first time through the lineup and he struck out seven more the second time through. The Longhorns never had a chance to show if they would have been able to make the adjustment the third time through, as he faced just three batters three times before Sims entered the game.

As the strikeouts piled up, Bednar said he couldn’t help himself from glancing back at the scoreboard over his left shoulder at TD Ameritrade Park, where the counter next to his name steadily increased.

But Bednar wasn’t distracted by the increasing strikeout totals. He just kept pumping in his fastball-slider combination and burying hitters. It was the quintessential start for baseball in 2021—a power pitcher attacking hitters with a high-spin fastball up in the strike zone and mixing in a sharp slider to produce strikeout after strikeout. He did it until he started to tire and then Sims, another powerful pitcher, came on to finish the game.

It was everything Mississippi State needed Sunday. The Bulldogs offense could get little going against Madden and lefthander Pete Hansen and the wind was blowing out hard to center field. Lemonis told pitching coach Scott Foxhall before the game that they would need some strikeouts.

“I kept telling him before the game when we saw the wind, I said the best thing to do is just strike them out and he was able to do that,” Lemonis said. “I really did make that comment. But he was—our pitchers were phenomenal tonight.”

Bednar delivered those strikeouts in bunches, spinning a gem that will go down as part of his legacy at Mississippi State.