MCWS 2024: NC State is back in Omaha after controversial 2021 exit - ESPN

OMAHA, Nebraska — Dalton Feeney's baseball career ended in a quiet room at the downtown Omaha Embassy Suites. It was sometime around 1 o'clock in the morning on June 26, 2021, and Feeney, a senior pitcher for the Wolfpack, was holed up in his room because he'd just tested positive for COVID-19.

He was vaccinated and asymptomatic. Just a few hours earlier, he'd pitched four innings in a gritty 3-1 loss to Vanderbilt, a game in which NC State had just 13 players because of positive tests, sickness and contact tracing, a game that set up a winner-take-all bracket final for a trip to Men's College World Series championship series.

Then late that night, as his team held a hastily planned meeting downstairs, Feeney started receiving a series of group team texts that included messages such as, «Sorry it had to end this way,» and «Love you guys.»

«I'm like, 'What's going on downstairs?'» Feeney said. «And I get a knock on the door. [It was] one of the guys who tested negative. 'He said, 'We're done. The season's over. They're kicking us out.'»

The NCAA Division I baseball committee declared the bracket final between the two teams a no contest due to COVID protocols. Vanderbilt went to the championship round, and the Wolfpack went home in a MCWS filled with controversy, sadness and eternal what-ifs.

Today, the Wolfpack are back in Omaha for the first time since 2021, playing Kentucky at 2 p.m. ET in an opening-round game. And in some way, that first sports year back from the pandemic shutdowns seems like a lifetime ago, with PCR tests, caution, confusion and controversy in an unprecedented space.

NC State coach Elliott Avent does not want to take anything away from this team by dredging up the past, and said Thursday that the