As Mississippi State looks to bounce back from last night’s loss to Texas, the Bulldogs will turn to Will Bednar tonight as their starting pitcher at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

Texas late Friday night beat Mississippi State with an 8-5 victory in a game that was delayed by rain, and featured a three-run eighth inning by State. Earlier this week, Bednar struck out a career-high 15 batters in six innings, the most at the College World Series in 25 years, and State held off Texas 2-1 Sunday night.

For perspective, Bednar and Landon Sims set a CWS team record, as they combined for 21 strikeouts when the Bulldogs ran their season total to 765, tying the Division I record. Bednar’s total was the highest by an individual since Clemson’s Kris Benson struck out 15 against Miami in 1996.

He struck out the side in half of his six completed innings, and also fanned two batters in each of the other three frames. He hurled four 1-2-3 innings and no Texas player reached second base while Bednar was in the game. The Longhorns mustered just one hit and only three total baserunners against Bednar.

It was during a 20 mile-per-hour wind blowing out to straight center, and Bednar offered perspective on the outing.

“I felt like it was a great performance – probably my best ever – especially on this big of a stage,” Bednar said. “It was really cool.”

Vanderbilt is scheduled to face the winner of Mississippi State-Texas in the final series starting on Monday. That series will be the best 2-out-of-3.