AP Photo/Rebecca S. GratzIn Game 1, Vanderbilt gave the ball to Jack Leiter, a future top-10 pick. Mississippi State couldn’t keep up.Game 3 saw the Commodores send a future top-10 player to Kumar Rocker for the game.The Bulldogs were ready this time.Rocker was sent to the showers by Mississippi State and the team just kept scoring as it won 9-0 over Vanderbilt in order to win the 2021 Men’s College World Series.Logan Tanner and Kellum Clark both played deep, while Will Bednar pitched six no-hit innings to help the Bulldogs win their first College World Series title in program history. This is also the first ever national championship for a team-sport program in school lore.Mississippi State was the previous runner-up at the 2013 event.Rocker was only able to last 4.1 innings. He gave up five runs, four earned, on six hits and struck out six. In his two innings of work, Chris McElvain allowed four more runs.Tanner Allen, Tanner Rowdey, Tanner Tanner, and Tanner all had at minimum two hits in the game, which turned into a four-run seventh. Mississippi State had 12 hits.Vanderbilt wanted to win the College World Series for the second consecutive year. After last year's Series cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2019 event was won by the Commodores. They were the defending champion.Since South Carolina's 2010 and 2011 victories, no team has been crowned champion again.Rocker's Vanderbilt career is over, but his disappointments will not last. According to projections, the righty will rise as high as No. 6, to the Arizona Diamondbacks, when the draft begins July 11.It remains to be seen if Rocker will lose his confidence under the brightest lights.
