Coronavirus hits the semifinals of the College World Series; at one o'clock Saturday morning, the NCAA issued a news release saying the Division I Baseball Committee has declared the Vanderbilt-NC State CWS game scheduled for Saturday afternoon a "no-contest" because of COVID-19 protocols.
The release said the decision was made based on the recommendations of the Championship Medical Team and the Douglas County Health Department.
As a result, Vanderbilt will advance to the CWS Finals next week to play the winner of tonight's 6 o'clock game between Mississippi St. and Texas.
The Longhorns forced a second bracket championship game by defeating the Bulldogs 8 to 5 in a game that ended in the early morning hours Saturday after a two-and-half hour rain delay.
The Texas-Mississippi St. game this evening will be televised on ESPN2.
Earlier Friday, Vanderbilt defeated NC State 3 to 1, with the Wolfpack down to 13 players because of Covid protocols.
The complete NCAA Division One Baseball Committee statement:
“The NCAA Division I Baseball Committee has declared the Vanderbilt-NC State Men’s College World Series game scheduled for Saturday, June 26 at 1 p.m. Central time a no-contest because of COVID-19 protocols. This decision was made based on the recommendation of the Championship Medical Team and the Douglas County Health Department. As a result, Vanderbilt will advance to the CWS Finals. The NCAA and the committee regret that NC State’s student-athletes and coaching staff will not be able to continue in the championship in which they earned the right to participate. Because of privacy issues, we cannot provide further details.”
(Pictures from Stanford University Athletics and NCAA Photos/Getty Images)