OMAHA, Neb. — Tanner Allen acknowledged No. 4 Mississippi State “took a haymaker” from No. 7 Vanderbilt on Monday in Game 1 of the best-of-three College World Series final.

Just one night later, it was the Bulldogs’ turn to knock the Commodores to the mat.

On Tuesday, Mississippi State (49-18) gave as good as it got — and more — in a 13-2 thrashing of Vanderbilt (49-17) as the Bulldogs not only held onto their national championship but loomed larger than life over their beaten opponents in a maroon-thronged TD Ameritrade Park.

The Bulldogs cracked 14 hits, drew 10 walks and left veritable tire tracks all over the base paths to move within a single win of their first national championship and the first team title in school history.

“We’ve had our back against the wall (what) feels like all year long, and they just keep responding,” coach Chris Lemonis said.

And perhaps most importantly, Mississippi State saved some life in its proverbial arm to dole out some more punches in Wednesday night’s winner-take-all Game 3.

Left-hander Houston Harding went the first four innings and righty Preston Johnson went the next five as just two Bulldogs pitchers got the job done. When Johnson got Isaiah Thomas to ground out for the final out, Lemonis took closer Landon Sims aside.

“I said, ‘Man, it was sure nice not having to pitch you tonight,’ because I feel like in every win for the last month he has been out there,” the coach said.

Instead, Sims can rest up for Wednesday along with right-hander Will Bednar. Both pitchers last appeared Saturday as the Bulldogs beat Texas 4-3 in the Bracket 2 final.

“We’re ecstatic because, one, we’re still playing; and, two, we used two arms tonight,” Lemonis said. “We have an opportunity to use some different guys tomorrow now because of the score.”

Meanwhile, five Vanderbilt freshman pitchers were no match for Mississippi State’s seasoned offense. The first four — Christian Little, Patrick Reilly, Nelson Berkwich and Hunter Owen — all gave up at least one run, and none of them pitched more than three innings.

Luke Hancock was 2 for 3 with three walks, and Logan Tanner also drew three free passes. Scotty Dubrule had a pair of hits, and even struggling freshman shortstop Lane Forsythe broke out at the plate. He had three hits, including a two-run single in the seventh.

A four-run third inning and a five-run seventh allowed the Bulldogs to gain some separation against a Commodores team not to be counted out with pitcher Kumar Rocker likely taking the mound. But the projected top-10 MLB draft pick could only watch from the dugout as his teammates struggled, his No. 80 glinting in gold from the back of his black jersey.

Rocker watched shortstop Carter Young fail to extract Allen’s grounder in the third from the webbing of his glove. He watched Little walk three straight batters, forcing in a run when Logan Tanner drew a free pass. He saw Scotty Dubrule drive in two runs with a single and later sprint home on a wild pitch.

“We wanted to grind him out,” Lemonis said. “He has really good stuff. The batting averages off of some of his stuff is really tough, so we felt like we really had to stay on the ball, move the ball, stay in the strike zone and hit balls in the strike zone. And we were able to do that.”

The four-spot gave Mississippi State a 5-1 lead that Harding immediately threatened to return, putting the first two Vanderbilt batters aboard in the top of the fourth. But he induced a fielder’s choice and got both CJ Rodriguez and Javier Vaz to chase pitches out of the zone, ending his night with a pair of strikeouts and a cheer from the decidedly pro-Bulldogs crowd.

“He just kept going out there and competing,” Lemonis said. “He gives us a chance to win every time he runs out there.”

Dubrule beat out a double play to produce a run in the fourth, and Kamren James and Luke Hancock had RBI singles in the fifth.

Allen scored on an error in the seventh, Forsythe plated two runs with a single to center, and Rowdey Jordan rebounded from an 0-for-5 start to the contest to knock an RBI base hit to right. When Tanner added a double down the line in the eighth, every Mississippi State starter had at least one hit.

“We were just going to stay in the moment — just stick to our approaches and look for good pitches to hit,” Dubrule said. “You’re really not trying to complicate things. You just keep doing the same thing you’ve been doing all year, and it clicked for us tonight.”

Now the Jacksonville grad transfer and the Bulldogs are one win away from their first national title. And while Dubrule knows that’s on their minds, he knows they can’t allow it to take over.

“You really can’t think about it too much,” he said. “You just gotta take it a pitch at a time. And if that moment comes, we will be grateful. But we’re just going to go out and do our thing tomorrow.”

Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.