After College World Series success, Mars grad Will Bednar could wind up as high pick in MLB Draft
Andy Bednar had been a baseball coach since before his boys were born. But in a telltale sign of the generation they were raised in, David and Will Bednar didn’t have their competitive fire ignited solely on the field.
In part, it began on a flatscreen TV.
“I’ve gotten progressively more competitive as my life’s gone on,” Will Bednar said via video conference Friday. “I think it really started with Dave, all that time just playing ‘Madden’ growing up.”
What Will did Wednesday wasn’t a video game. It only felt like it.
A Mars alumnus, Bednar pitched six no-hit innings in the deciding game of the College World Series. Three years after being named the Tribune-Review Player of the Year for leading the Planets to the WPIAL Class 5A title game, Bednar was named the College World Series’ most outstanding player in leading Mississippi State to its first national championship.
“I am still kind of in shock,” Bednar said two days after the game. “I will just look in the mirror and be like, ‘Man, we really just won the national championship!’ ”
Not only was Bednar part of the first NCAA team champion at the baseball-crazed school, and not only was he recognized as his team’s best player, he did it while tossing two-thirds of a no-hitter.
“You really can’t draw it up any better than that,” said proud big brother David. “It’s awesome. Unbelievable.”
The next step for Will Bednar is the July 11 start of the MLB Draft, for which his stock has been skyrocketing to the point where he could go in the first round.
All the better in his quest to do what younger siblings around the world have sought since the beginning of time: catch up with the older sibling. In Will Bednar’s case, the target is David, who is 5 ½ years his senior and is in his first full major-league season — as a higher-leverage reliever for the Pirates, no less.
“It’s always been a friendly competition,” David said by phone. “He sees what I was able to do, and he’s, obviously, trying to top that. So I have to just keep setting the bar high.”
A 6-foot-2, 229-pound righthander, Will Bednar obliterated bars set for fairytale endings. In three College World Series games, Bednar allowed just three runs on five hits with 26 strikeouts in 18 1/3 innings.
At the end of the game, Mars grad Will Bednar found himself in a dogpile celebrating Mississippi State's 9-0 victory over Vanderbilt in the deciding third game of the College World Series finals Wednesday night.https://t.co/I7D7hPlL0b
— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) July 1, 2021
Bednar struck out 15 Texas hitters during Mississippi State’s CWS opener June 20 in Omaha, Neb. Capped by the six no-hit innings on three days’ rest — coach Chris Lemonis said the 9-0 score affected his decision to pull Bednar — Bednar finished 2021 with a 9-1 record, 3.12 ERA and 139 strikeouts in 107 2/3 innings.
That followed up the abbreviated 2020 season in which he was named freshman all-American — and, in all likelihood, is preceding the start of a pro career as a high draft pick.
“He deserves everything. All the success he’s had right here, he deserves every little bit of it,” Mississippi State teammate and fellow right-hander Landon Sims said during the College World Series. “Whoever ends up drafting him is going to get a bulldog. And the best competitor out there.
“He’s the greatest competitor I’ve ever played with. He works his butt off every single day. There’s a lot that goes into his process, his work.”
That work began on a mound at the Bednar house, via the work with the Pittsburgh Diamond Dogs organization under former Pitt and Chicago White Sox minor-league pitcher Frank Merigliano, and under the tutelage of his father. Andy Bednar was head coach or assistant of Mars’ varsity team throughout Will’s life until he went to college.
“Our high school program tried to teach that element of toughness in all facets of the game,” Andy Bednar said while driving home from Omaha on Friday. “We emphasized attacking hitters, and I think (Will’s competitiveness) is just kind of a byproduct of that.”
That, of course, and video games against David, who has been beaming around the Pirates clubhouse all week as his little brother shined with the nation watching.
“I knew the stage wasn’t going to be too big for him,” David said. “He showed up for sure in those big games. Hats off to him. He competed his butt off. I’m still at a loss for words after watching that college World Series. It was unbelievable to watch. He was awesome.”
Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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