COVID Cancels Matchup With NC State, Sending Vanderbilt To College World Series Final

The Vanderbilt Commodores were automatically advanced to the finals of the College World Series early Saturday morning, as the NCAA announced their game with NC State had been canceled due to COVID.

The Commodores play the Mississippi State Bulldogs at 6 p.m. Central on Monday.

The Wolfpack had played the Commodores with only 13 players available on Friday, losing 3-1. The NCAA did not say what caused Saturday’s cancellation.

“The NCAA and the [Division I Baseball] 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,” the NCAA said in a short statement issued at 1:10 a.m. Central. “Because of privacy issues, we cannot provide further details.”

NCAA Statement from Division I Baseball Committee:

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. #CWS pic.twitter.com/amxdQwkQ6l

— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 26, 2021

The declaration means that the Commodores will get a chance to defend their 2019 national championship in a best-of-three series that starts Monday.

Head coach Tim Corbin said at a weekend press conference that he’d been awakened by the news at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday.

“And at that point right there, I rolled over and woke my wife up,” he said, sounding less than enthused by the turn of events. “We stayed up the rest of the night and just talked, because we wanted to process it. Just because I felt like, when the boys woke up, I wanted to give them some type of information.”

Corbin said he recognized “the level of hurt” that NC State was experiencing.

Players have been operating under detailed COVID protocols issued by the NCAA when championship competitions resumed this spring. Those rules call for players to be tested before arriving at the College World Series site in Omaha and if they’ve come in contact with someone outside their immediate circle of players, coaches and staff.

Anyone who tests positive is to be quarantined, the NCAA has said.

This post was updated on June 27 to include Corbin’s comments.