One game after a win that was hard to comprehend, Vanderbilt, thanks to Kumar Rocker, scored a victory completely different way, grinding out an ugly, 3-1 victory over an undermanned North Carolina State team on Friday in the College Baseball World Series in TD Ameritrade Park.

Rocker (14-3) struck out 11 and allowed just one run (earned), striking out 11, walking one and scattering five hits over six innings to get the win. Luke Murphy threw 2 1/3 innings and got a save, escaping a two-on, two-out jam in the ninth when cleanup hitter Devonte Brown grounded to short.

Second baseman Parker Noland led Vandy with two hits and an RBI. It was a tense game throughout, with Vanderbilt stranding 13 men and the Wolfpack, 12.

The Commodores (48-16) play a rematch in a win-or-go-home game with the Wolfpack, scheduled for 1 Central on Saturday.

"Just a very tough ball game," Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said." I thought we pitched extremely well. We held it together in tough situations. Kumar getting us deep into the ball game, gave us everything he had and kept them down."

What Wolfpack team they'll face is anyone's guess. And that was the topic of Friday.

With just minutes to go before the scheduled 1:00 start to this one, the NCAA announced it was pushing back the start time an hour due to "health and safety protocols." Soon, everyone learned that, due to some combination of positive Covid-19 tests and contact tracing, NC State had just 13 available players.

The Wolfpack didn't have projected starting pitcher Matt Willadsen, nor did it have several lineup starters in Tyler McDonough (center), Terrell Tatum (DH), Jose Torres (shortstop) and J.T. Jarrett (second).

And that left several seldom-used players to play prominent roles. That included Monday's starting pitcher, Sam Highfill--who didn't hit all year--to play first and hit seventh. Miraculously, Highfill singled three times, which led both teams.

So instead, Vandy faced starting pitcher Garrett Payne, a first-year freshman, came in with a 7.27 ERA in 8 2/3 innings, having allowed 12 walks against six strikeouts. His previous high in pitch count was 65, but Payne threw 87 pitches over five innings, allowing three runs (just one earned).

Right-hander Dalton Feeney, who had 13.1 innings of an 11.48 ERA, 14 walks and 14 strikeouts, then came in to hold Vanderbilt scoreless over the final four innings. The two combined for 157 pitches, with each throwing a season high.

"To be honest, we really didn't have much [of a scouting report,]" Noland said. "Because of the COVID situation, we were preparing for someone different. But we knew if we just stuck to our plan we'd be okay."

State's Carson Falksen (who had 12 at-bats all season), played second, with DeAngelo Giles (10) and Eddie Eisert (five) serving as the DH.

"It's almost going back to playing sandlot," Corbin said. "We didn't know who was going to pitch until five minutes before the game. So there's really nothing you can do about it. You knew he was right-handed. You knew that once we got the information, we started to give the information to the kids real quick."

Somehow, the Wolfpack out-hit Vanderbilt, 8-6, in a contest with just one extra-base hit (Vandy's Dominic Keegan doubled in the seventh, but didn't score.)

And somehow in the midst of that, Vanderbilt--while it never trailed--didn't lead until the fifth, and stood one swing away from elimination when NC State had two on with two out in the ninth.

Vandy's bats--as has been the case most of the season, and especially in recent weeks--struggled out of the gate. Payne walked a man in the first and second but neither were the leadoff man and he stranded both, and then he threw a perfect third.

Finally, Keegan reached to lead off the fourth on an error by Vojtech Mensik, the Wolfpack's normal third baseman who was playing first. Two ground-outs followed but C.J. Rodriguez singled through the left side to score a run and then a Noland single moved runners up.

Payne plunked Spencer Jones to load the bases and then a wild pitch scored Rodriguez from third.

In the meantime, Rocker was the glue that held the 'Dores together. He didn't have a scouting report on much of what he'd see, but said it didn't matter.

"You pitch to them like any other player," he said.

The situation wasn't easy on Rocker, either, after having his pregame routine disrupted by the unexpected delay.

"I started warming up" Rocker said. "And then I had to stop because they had to take some time to get their stuff together. Went back in the locker room. And then I came back out, got back into pitching mode, and then went to play."

Vandy's All-American righty was great out of the gate, striking out eight of the first nine hitters he faced. Rocker's breaking ball was sharp in the first. He kept locating it down in the zone and got through the first on 15 pitches, striking out the side on that slider, which sat 78-79.

From that point on, he wasn't as dominant, though he did strike out two in his final inning, his last pitch being a 93-mile-an-hour fastball.

But NC State still didn't square him up with much result in between, scoring its lone run by piecing together a few well-placed balls. The Wolfpack got a bunt single from Falksen and then Highfill singled through short. Two batters later, Giles lofted a sacrifice fly to left to make it a 2-1 game.

In the sixth, Vanderbilt finally chased Payne after Javier Vaz walked to lead off and Feeney came on. Vaz stole second and took third on Rodriguez fly ball to center, then scored on Noland's single to left-center.

In the seventh, with Vanderbilt's Chris McElvain pitching, Highfill looped a single over short, then, shortstop Carter Young booted a potential double-play ball on to give the Wolfpack two on with nobody out.

But with Giles up, Highfill wandered too far off second and Rodriguez picked him off easily.

That may have been the biggest play of the game.

McElvain then struck Giles out but walked Austin Murr. Hugh Fisher came in for one lefty out, but hit Jonny Butler. On came Murphy, who fell behind 3-1 to Luca Tresh, State's leading home-run hitter with 15.

But Tresh popped harmlessly to Noland at second and that was that.

"I thought we certainly pitched well enough -- Luke pitching at the end and just getting several 3-2 counts and just kind of holding serve and just getting through and keeping them off the scoreboard certainly with Murr and Butler and Tresh at the top," Corbin said. "They can do a lot of damage, certainly. He was able to contain them thankfully.

Vandy's offense continues to struggle, especially in the early innings. The Commodores have scored just one run in the first three innings of their four CWS games--that came in the first inning of the opener vs. Arizona--and have plated just 15 in the event despite facing three opponents more heavy on offense than pitching.

Corbin bristled when asked about the offensive output in Omaha.

"We're here for a reason," he said. "Because we can play offense. We played it at the level that we've played it at times during the course of the year. But at the same time intertwined with maybe at-bats that weren't so good were at-bats that were really good.

"And there was inches in certain situations of that ball escaping an outfielder. They had to make good plays in the outfield. They made several good plays in the outfield, in which -- not just Brown's, but balls that they caught in the web and on the run, balls that were blasted. We had about five or six balls that were blasted in the gaps that they caught. And then other at-bats that weren't so opportunistic."

"We got a positive outcome," Corbin added later. "And at this point I don't care what it looks like. It doesn't matter. We're still here. We're still playing and that's all that matters. And there is a toughness component that we've had that has allowed us to get through those moments."

Corbin said he didn't know who'd pitch on Saturday.

"We'll just wait until tomorrow," he said. "When they wake up we start moving around a little bit. We'll find out what we have and whether Jack [Leiter] is or anyone else for that matter. We'll determine that once they start moving around, once they start throwing, once they start moving their arm."

Corbin ruled Murphy out for Saturday, and mentioned that the Commodores would likely use pitching that hasn't been used in Omaha, mentioning freshman lefties Nelson Berkwich and Hunter Owen.

The Commodores have now won two elimination games. A win tomorrow would put them in the championship series against either Mississippi State or Texas.

"I think we knew what was ahead of us when we showed up at the field," Rocker said. "We're a tough group. And we're going to continue to be one."

VU 4: Rodriguez single to left. VU, 1-0

VU 4: Rodriguez scored on wild pitch. VU, 2-0

NCST 5: Giles sacrifice fly to left. VU, 2-1

VU 6: Noland single scored Vaz. VU, 3-1