OMAHA, Neb. - Vanderbilt's baseball team will advance to the College World Series finals after North Carolina State was forced to drop out of the tournament because of COVID-19 protocols, the NCAA announced early Saturday.
N.C. State had only 13 players available during its 3-1 loss to the Commodores on Friday afternoon. As the last two teams remaining in their double-elimination bracket, the Wolfpack and Vanderbilt were scheduled to meet again Saturday with a spot in the best-of-three title series on the line.
The NCAA Division I Baseball Committee declared that would-be rematch a no-contest.
"This decision was made based on the recommendation of the Championship Medical Team and the Douglas County Health Department," the NCAA said in a released statement. "As a result, Vanderbilt will advance to the CWS Finals.
"The NCAA and the committee regret that N.C. 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."
Douglas County Health Department spokesman Phil Rooney said the health department did not recommend N.C. State's removal but told the NCAA the department would support whatever decision the NCAA made.
Rooney said the health department provides assistance to the NCAA in testing and contact tracing but is limited in mandating procedures related to COVID-19 because there is no local directed health measure in effect.
Vanderbilt, making its fifth appearance at the CWS - all since 2011 - is going for its third national championship. The Commodores won the NCAA title in 2014 and again in 2019, making the Nashville program the reigning champion because there was no postseason last year amid the pandemic.
The Commodores (48-16), seeded fourth nationally for the 64-team NCAA tournament that began early this month, will meet No. 7 Mississippi State (47-17) or No. 2 Texas (50-16) in the best-of-three finals starting Monday.
Texas dealt Mississippi State its first loss of this eight-team CWS, winning 8-5 in a game that started Friday evening, was delayed in the ninth inning by weather for nearly 2 1/2 hours and finished early Saturday. Mississippi State and Texas meet again Saturday night.
N.C. State (37-19) was missing four starting position players and had only 13 of its 27 players on the roster available for Friday's game, which was delayed an hour after the NCAA said it needed time to complete "health and safety protocols." N.C. State said "several players" had entered the COVID-19 protocol.
After the game, Wolfpack coach Elliott Avent grew frustrated and wouldn't answer directly when asked if he or the baseball program encouraged players to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
"My job is to teach them baseball, make sure they get an education and keep them on the right track forward," he said. "But I don't try to indoctrinate my kids with my values or my opinions. Obviously, we talk about a lot of things. But these are young men that can make their own decisions, and that's what they did."
Avent rolled his eyes when asked if he's been vaccinated.
"If you want to talk baseball, we can talk baseball," he said. "If you want to talk politics or stuff like that, you can go talk to my head of sports medicine, Rob Murphy."
N.C. State did not immediately respond to a request for an interview with Murphy.
The NCAA does not require athletes, coaches and other staff working closely with a team to be tested for COVID-19 if they are fully vaccinated and showing no symptoms. Those who are not vaccinated must be tested at NCAA championship events. Tests are done every other day at the CWS.
Avent said he found out there was a problem 45 minutes to an hour before the game. He told ESPN during an in-game interview that players not with the team were getting tested Friday afternoon and, if the results were negative, would have a chance to play in the rematch Saturday.
The regulars in the lineup were Austin Murr, who moved from first to left field; Jonny Butler, who moved from left to center; Luca Tresh at his usual catcher spot; Devonte Brown in his usual spot in right field; and Vojtech Mensik, who moved from third base to shortstop.
Carson Falksken played second base in place of J.T. Jarrett, Eddie Eisert was the designated hitter instead of Terrell Tatum, DeAngelo Giles moved into Vojtech's spot at third and Sam Highfill, the No. 2 starting pitcher, played first base.
Avent said he gave his available players the choice to play or forfeit Friday. They all wanted to play, he said.
Avent told reporters Monday an illness was running through the team but made no mention of it possibly being COVID-19. He said associate head coach Chris Hart had been sick for five or six days and that second baseman J.T. Jarrett and pitcher Cameron Cotter weren't feeling well.
The pandemic heavily disrupted college sports over the past year, and four teams dropped out of an NCAA championship event during that time because of COVID-19: The Virginia Commonwealth University men's basketball team, the Michigan and Notre Dame men's ice hockey teams and the Rice women's volleyball team.
Now the Wolfpack have joined that list, ending an impressive season that turned around radically after they started 4-9 overall and 1-8 in Atlantic Coast Conference play.
They advanced to the ACC tournament title game, swept through an NCAA regional as an unseeded team on the road and eliminated top-ranked and No. 1 national seed Arkansas - winning back-to-back one-run games after losing 21-2 in the opener of a super regional hosted by the Razorbacks - to make it to Omaha.
At the CWS, they opened the eight-team event last Saturday by beating No. 9 Stanford 10-4, and two days later they topped Vanderbilt 1-0. After three days off as the tourney field thinned out, they returned to TD Ameritrade Park Omaha for Friday's matchup and played better than might have been expected considering the circumstances.
Hours later, N.C. State's surprising run ended outside the lines and in the middle of the night without another pitch being thrown.
There was one final moment for the Wolfpack on the field, though: Players and coaches gathered at home plate to take pictures around the CWS logo early Saturday after the Mississippi State-Texas game was completed.
"The last 24 hours have been extremely difficult for everyone involved and my heart goes out to the student-athletes, coaches and staff of our baseball program," N.C. State athletic director Boo Corrigan said in a statement released Saturday morning.
"The health and safety of our student-athletes and staff will always be our unwavering priority. The timing of this is simply devastating for everyone involved, but it doesn't diminish their incredible accomplishments this season."