OMAHA, Neb. — They were pouring out of the dugout by the time Brayland Skinner rounded third base, the crowd reaching peak volume as Skinner made the turn and headed home unchallenged.
Skinner pumped his fist on his way into home plate, cast his helmet aside and let the mass of white jerseys envelop him.
Across the diamond, Tanner Leggett crossed first base, although there was no need to go to second. In his first at-bat of the day and only his second in a month, the senior infielder had just delivered the base hit that sent the Bulldogs to the College World Series final.
While pitchers Will Bednar and Landon Sims played big roles as usual, it was that unlikely junior-college duo who came up biggest for Mississippi State on Saturday night in a 4-3 walk-off win over Texas as the Bulldogs (48-17) knocked out the Longhorns (51-16). MSU will face No. 4 Vanderbilt (48-16) in the best-of-three final with games at 6 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. Game 3, if necessary, will be played at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
“I’m really happy for our kids,” coach Chris Lemonis said. “I thought we got a great start from Will Bednar, Landon Sims did Landon Sims things, and my JUCO bandits did it there in the ninth.”
Once again, the Bulldogs made things difficult on themselves. They had a chance to sweep Notre Dame in the Starkville Super Regional but needed three games to advance. On Friday, they could have finished off Texas but lost 8-5, setting up Saturday’s matchup.
But Lemonis and his team were prepared. During the two-and-a-half-hour rain delay that pushed back the end of Friday’s game, the skipper reminded his players that this is just how it goes.
“If you ever thought it was going to be easy, it’s not our way,” Lemonis said. “Seems like we have to be dramatic. We have to fight for it, and for us to get here, it was going to be a battle. Our team has been so resilient all year.”
Even Saturday — especially Saturday — it wasn’t easy. The Bulldogs had opportunities throughout the game and let them slip away. After tying the game on Logan Tanner’s RBI double in the sixth inning, they loaded the bases with nobody out. But Brad Cumbest grounded into a forceout, and Kellum Clark and Josh Hatcher struck out to end the inning. The maroon and white side of TD Ameritrade Park deflated, while the burnt orange section erupted.
A double play hurt the Bulldogs in the seventh, and they went 1-2-3 in the eighth.
But Clark was hit by a pitch with one out in the ninth, and Skinner took his place at first base. The Northwest Mississippi Community College product swiped second with Leggett at the plate — on a pitch he wasn’t supposed to run on.
“We tried to make sure we got into a breaking ball count,” Lemonis said. “ … It was a fastball up and away, so probably we didn’t run on the best pitch or the best move, and he just outran the baseball.”
Seeing Skinner at second gave Leggett renewed faith in what he could do. He took a first-pitch fastball outside from Cole Quintanilla, took the second pitch for a strike and laced the third offering over shortstop Trey Faltine’s glove. It landed in the gap in left-center, and Skinner scored easily.
“What an opportunity,” Leggett said. “Some people get nervous for that situation, but I pray for that situation.”
Cam Williams’ two-run home run in the second inning put the Longhorns up 2-0, but Tanner Allen got a run back for the Bulldogs with an RBI single in the third. Mike Antico put Texas up 3-1 with a double in the fifth.
The Bulldogs got another run back when shortstop Lane Forsythe rolled into a double play with men on the corners and nobody out in the bottom of the fifth.
When Douglas Hodo III’s fly ball died in Allen’s glove on the warning track to end the ninth, Sims was ready to pitch the 10th, but he didn’t think he would need to.
“I have all the confidence in the world that they are going to score runs when it’s needed,” he said. “We’ve done that all year, and we weren’t going to stop now.”
The Bulldogs backed him up, delivering a moment Lemonis said was his favorite to date in college baseball — until next week, anyway.
“You’re hugging your coaches, and you’re just so proud and happy for your team,” Lemonis said. “They work so hard. These kids, they sacrifice more than you can ever imagine to play at this level and to play on this stage, and to see them celebrate the way they did is awesome.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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