OMAHA, Neb. — A year ago, Mississippi State baseball coach Chris Lemonis was doing one of two things: fishing or golfing.

With the Bulldogs’ 2020 season shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March, Lemonis depended on those two activities as he fought to “keep (his) sanity” in a suddenly stressful, dangerous world.

A year later, he and his team are back at the “pinnacle” of college baseball, and Lemonis has left those familiar habits 750 miles behind in the Starkville swelter. For the third straight time, he and the Bulldogs are in Omaha, Nebraska, vying to win it all at the College World Series.

“It’s a lot of fun to be back,” Lemonis said.

Two years after their last appearance, the Bulldogs are indeed back at a venue they know plenty well. They’ll be playing in their 12 College World Series and their fourth in nine seasons, making the trip in 2013 in addition to 2018 and 2019.

And they’ll be facing a program that has even more Omaha experience than Mississippi State. No. 2 overall seed Texas (47-15) will be the first opponent on the Bulldogs’ schedule in a primetime matchup at 6 p.m. Sunday at TD Ameritrade Park pitting two of the sport’s premier programs against each other.

“They’re a really good team,” senior outfielder Tanner Allen said. “They pitch well, defend well and they can swing the baseball bat. We have to be on our A game.”

The Bulldogs have done that most of the season — but not all of it. Well-publicized struggles against Missouri and in the Southeastern Conference tournament had fans worried heading into NCAA Regionals, but Mississippi State won all three games of its regional and beat Notre Dame in three in the Super Regionals to punch its northwest-bound ticket.

“We’ve had a great season but we haven’t had a perfect season,” Lemonis said. “We’ve had tough days and tough weekends and a tough tournament, and our team has had to be really resilient.”

But Texas, too, has shown that resilience. With limited practice time because of winter storms in Austin and all over the Lone Star State, the Longhorns barely got on the field before playing Mississippi State to open the season Feb. 20 in the State Farm College Baseball Showdown in Arlington. The Bulldogs beat them 8-3, and Texas lost to Arkansas and Ole Miss to end the event without a single win.

“I think when we took the field against Mississippi State that we were really young at the beginning of the year,” Texas redshirt junior infielder Zach Zubia said. “A lot of the guys that we played hadn’t really seen the field, hadn’t played a full season yet. Now they’ve got a full season under their belt, I think that they’re more prepared mentally, even more so than physically, to take the field against a team like Mississippi State.”

The Longhorns won 14 of their next 16 games, then dominated Big 12 play, losing just one conference series — to fellow top-eight national seed Texas Tech. They didn’t drop a single game in their regional and swept the Austin Super Regional against South Florida, limiting their opponents to just 12 runs in five games.

“Our pitching and defense has been the backbone of our team all year,” Texas coach David Pierce said. “And I thought we played really well defensively throughout the postseason.”

Now the Longhorns face a Mississippi State team relatively lacking in the field (the Bulldogs’ fielding percentage, though not the ideal defensive metric, ranks No. 84 in the country) but potent on the mound and at the plate. Mississippi State scored three runs in four innings off Texas ace and projected high draft pick Ty Madden in that February matchup and will see him again Sunday night.

Lemonis said he’s well acquainted with Madden’s powerful fastball but that his “lights-out” breaking ball can be even more dangerous.

“If he gets on that roll, goes to it a lot, he can get you to swing and miss a good bit,” Lemonis said, “so we’re going to have our work cut out for us.”

The Bulldogs threw Christian MacLeod in that first game, but they’ll counter Texas with right-hander Will Bednar, keeping the sophomore on track as the Bulldogs’ first starter, as he’s been all postseason. Bednar, who was roughed up a bit by the Fighting Irish last Saturday, said he plans to attack the strike zone and be aggressive against a solid Texas lineup.

“I’m really excited,” Bednar said. “This is a really cool opportunity to be here, and to be able to start Game 1 is incredible.”

For Mississippi State, just having a chance to compete for a championship once again is what matters. Allen said 2021 will likely be the Bulldogs’ best shot at bringing a first-ever title back home.

“I feel it’s our time to come here, win the national championship and bring it back home to Starkville,” he said.

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