OMAHA, Neb. — Mississippi State didn’t make the 1,000-mile journey to the heartland to be a spectator. The Bulldogs got another clutch hit and won another big game Saturday night to advance to the winner’s bracket in the opening round of the College World Series, defeating Washington 1-0 in walk-off fashion. After battling the Huskies to a scoreless tie through eight innings, the Bulldogs won it on a walk-off RBI double off the bat of Luke Alexander. More:3 things to know from MSU's 1-0 win over Washington Alexander’s hard fly ball sailed over the head of Washington right fielder Kaiser Weiss, who was playing shallow to ensure Hunter Stovall wouldn’t score from second on a bloop single. “I knew (Washington reliever Alex Hardy) was gonna start me off with a slider, and he did,” Alexander said. “He came back with a fastball on the outside, so I knew he was going to go back to the slider and he did. “I saw it all the way.” How it happened:Mississippi State opens College World Series with win against Washington It’s hard to overstate how important the hit is for Mississippi State: Just three of the last 37 NCAA champions have come out of the loser’s bracket after the first round. The Bulldogs (38-27) are now four consecutive wins away from a national championship, and they can take another step in that direction against North Carolina at 6 p.m. Monday in the second round. The Tar Heels defeated Oregon State 8-6 in Saturday’s opening game. If North Carolina’s win was a marathon — the longest world series game since 2001, according to officials — then Mississippi State’s win over Washington was a sprint. In a post-season of one dramatic win after another, the Mississippi State Bulldogs found a new way to keep the 24,758 souls at TD Ameritrade Park on the edge of their seats in the nightcap. “We’ve been through a lot this year,” Stovall said. “When situations like that come up, as a team, we have confidence in whoever is at the plate. Coach (Gary) Henderson has turned us into grinders, and we have full confidence that we’re going to get it done.” It was a fitting end to a pitching duel that played out in a tidy 2.5 hours. Ethan Small, J.P. France, Cole Gordon and Zach Neff combined for the shutout for Mississippi State, with Small handling the bulk of the load. The Bulldog starter went seven innings, struck out five and allowed just four hits without issuing a walk. Small worked out of the only jam he found himself in by forcing a ground ball to start a double play in the third inning after Washington loaded the bases with one out. Neff ended up getting the win and improved his record to 4-3. “Proud of those kids and proud of our effort. Made big pitches when we needed them.” Washington starter Joe DeMers was fantastic as well. He went 7 1/3 innings without allowing a run. Hardy relieved him and got the Huskies to the ninth, but he gave up back-to-back singles to Stovall and Elijah MacNamee. That set the table for Alexander, who set the table for the rest of this tournament. The Bulldogs have a practice scheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday at Creighton University, then they'll take on the Tar Heels (44-18) Monday. A win in that game — far from a given but certainly possible with Konnor Pilkington on the mound — would give Mississippi State three days of rest before they would play Friday afternoon against whichever team comes out of the losers' bracket.<doc-sep>The Huskies will play their first College World Series game ever tonight against Mississippi State. As the lower seeded team Washington will be the "road" team vs the Bulldogs Game time is 5:36 p.m. Pacific (7:36 p.m. local in Omaha) on ESPN. North Carolina won a 4.5 hour marathon 8-6 over the Beavers in the CWS opener, forcing UW-Miss St back by about half an hour. That was the longest 9-inning game in College World Series history. CWS Schedule Notes: All times listed are Pacific Daylight Time. All TV broadcasts are on ESPN unless indicated otherwise. Unlike the WCWS format, there is no crossover between the two halves of the bracket. The only games Washington could be in after their opener are games 5, 6, 9, 11, and 13. For that same reason, the only three opponents UW could see before the championship are Mississippi State, Oregon State, and North Carolina. Sat 6/16 G1: #6 North Carolina (44-18, 22-8 ACC) vs #3 Oregon State (49-11, 20-9 Pac-12) -- UNC wins 8-6. G2: Washington (35-24, 20-10 Pac-12) vs Mississippi State (37-27, 15-15 SEC) -- 5 p.m. Sun, 6/17 G3: #13 Texas (42-21, 17-7 Big 12) vs #5 Arkansas (44-19, 18-12) -- 11 a.m. G4: #9 Texas Tech (44-18, 15-9 Big 12) vs #1 Florida (47-19, 20-10 SEC) -- 4 p.m., ESPN2 Mon, 6/18 G5 (elimination): Oregon State vs Loser G2 -- 11 a.m. G6: North Carolina vs Winner G2 -- 4 p.m. Tue, 6/19 G7 (elimination): Loser G3 vs Loser G4 -- 11 a.m. G8: Winner G3 vs Winner G4 -- 4 p.m. Wed, 6/20 G9 (elimination): Winner G5 vs Loser G6 -- 4 p.m. Thu, 6/21 G10 (elimination): Winner G7 vs Loser G8 -- 5 p.m., ESPNU Fri, 6/22 G11 (potential elimination): Winner G6 vs Winner G9 -- noon G12 (potential elimination): Winner G8 vs Winner G10 -- 5 p.m. If-necessary rematches of G11 and/or G12 would be played Saturday on ESPN, but times are TBD. The best-of-three championship series runs Monday 6/25 to Wednesday 6/27, all at 4 p.m. on ESPN. What to watch for The middle of the order has really fueled the Husky lineup in the postseason. Cleanup man Joe Wainhouse has been on a home run tear for over a month, but he's been joined by Levi Jordan and AJ Graffanino as big producers in the postseason for UW. TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha is infamous as a pitcher's park. The park itself is large, but the bigger factor is the fairly consistent strong winds that blow in from center. Today's UNC-OSU matchup had a steady wind over 20 mph coming straight from center to home plate. If/when a few balls do go out, it will probably be on line drives and balls hit near the foul poles to avoid the brunt of the wind, rather than high flies. Clearly bodes poorly for Wainhouse, but nobody else on UW really hits much in the way of high fly balls. Mississippi State is definitely more of an offensive-minded squad, averaging over 6 runs per game. 8 of the 9 position players to start at least 40 games this season have an OBP of .340 or better. Leadoff hitter and center fielder Jake Mangum is the most dangerous hitter for the Bulldogs, slashing .353/.432/.484 on the season. The #5 hitter, RF Elijah MacNamee has had a big power surge in the NCAA tournament. The average hasn't been much higher (.318 on the season, .333 in the tourney) but 5 of his 8 homers have come in the past 8 games. Interestingly, MacNamee has walked just 12 times total this season.<doc-sep>
OMAHA, Nebraska – Mississippi State baseball is having an incredible run, which includes five-straight elimination games during the 2018 NCAA Tournament. After a 10-6 Super Regional win over Vanderbilt, MSU is now set to face Washington in the program’s 10th College World Series Appearance. The Diamond Dawgs (37-27) will open the College World Series against the Washington Huskies (35-24). The game will begin at 7 p.m. CT from TD Ameritrade Park. The game will air live on ESPN and will also be streamed like through WatchESPN.com and the Watch ESPN app. With a win, State will take on the winner of Oregon State (49-10-1) and North Carolina (43-18) on Monday at 6 p.m. CT. With a loss, the Diamond Dawgs will take on the loser of the matchup between Oregon State and North Carolina at 1 p.m. CT, Monday on ESPN. After dropping After having dropped the Tallahassee Regional opener to Oklahoma by a score of 20-10, MSU’s season was saved by Elijah MacNamee’s Walk-Off Homer over Florida State. The Dawgs then beat Samford 9-8, and went on to beat Oklahoma 13-5 and 8-1 to reach the Super Regionals for the third straight year. State then traveled to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt in the Super Regional round. The Diamond Dawgs won the opener 10-8 on another walk-off home run from MacNamee. Vanderbilt took game two on a walk-off homer of its own. MSU battled it out to win the final game 10-6 in 11 innings to advance to the College World Series. This is the Washington Huskies first trip to the College World Series. The Huskies entered postseason as the lowest RPI (63) at-large team to receive a bid, but they played well through the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies traveled to Fullerton, Calif., to face Cal State Fullerton, who were looking to to qualify for their 19th MCWS berth. Washington won the first game 8-5 before dropping game two 5-2. Washington won the final game 6-5.