Vanderbilt was defeated 10-6 by State in 11 innings Sunday night and Monday morning to win the Super Regional for the Ages. State won Friday night’s walk-off win. Vandy won Saturday night in a walkoff. State then won the extra inning classic, which ended at 12:20 Monday morning. The celebration was one for the ages. The state players went bananas. They started to throw their gloves and caps into the air. They hugged, high-fived, and hugged each other before putting their caps and gloves in the air. They paraded through the outfield, waving to their fans who hugged and high-fived them, some even in tears. The Bulldogs will travel to Omaha for the College World Series later this week — the 10th CWS trip by State in its school history. Although the stage is bigger, Omaha’s CWS will be even more intense and competitive than it was. Coach Tim Corbin of Vanderbilt said, “It was almost like you were racing with someone and every time you speed up, they just sped it up and went that much quicker.” They deserve it. They came to our place and they fought and won. They lost their three first SEC games to Vanderbilt. They lost seven of the first nine SEC games. Jake Mangum, the team’s centerfielder and leadoff hitter, stated that “everybody had given up on us except us.” “Now, it’s up to us to keep it going in Omaha.” State will face Washington in the first round. There are many stories. * Henderson and his staff were the ones who kept things together despite all of that early adversity and also helped to nurture a young team through April, May, and now June. Henderson stated, “What an honor to be the Mississippi State head coach.” “This has been an incredible ride.” Henderson said. Corbin said, “Gary and his team have done a wonderful job with this group.” “They’ve been through a difficult set of circumstances, but they rose above them – and maybe because it was.” * Cole Gordon, a solid relief pitcher, pitched seven innings of shutout ball in the Bulldog Super Regional wins. He also pitched 3.2 innings on Sunday night. While there were many valuable Bulldogs involved in this series, Gordon was undoubtedly the most valuable. Jake Mangum stated, “Oh yeah,” Cole was our MVP. Although it was a team effort, he allowed us all to reach this point. He stepped up when it was crucial. Corbin: “Cole is a strong kid. He was a slowing factor in both of our losses. He was a major factor in their winning. Corbin said, “What can you ask for more?” Mangum’s Mangum. * What about Vanderbilt. It takes two teams to win a series like this. The Commodores made a series defensive plays in the seventh and eighth innings. There were four of them, which could have been SportsCenter plays of today. Mangum said again that both these teams should be invited to Omaha. * State took a three-run lead at the bottom of the ninth, but rallied for four runs in their top of the eleventh. It seems reasonable to me that State would need to play extra innings to get to Omaha after all the challenges they faced during this season. Mangum said, “I thought to myself (after Vandy rallied in the ninth), “Well, it makes sense, why wouldn’t we go to additional innings?” All of it makes the Omaha trip even more memorable._x000D