Will Bednar rarely makes a mental note of how many batters he has struck out while on the mound for Mississippi State.

Sunday night in Omaha, Neb., was different.

As the swing and misses from Texas batters piled up during his electric outing in the College World Series, Bednar was definitely keeping track.

“Uh, yeah,” said Bednar, a Mars graduate and redshirt freshman for the Bulldogs. “I wasn't trying to, but I kept peeking up at the board.”

And the Ks kept climbing like the right-hander's mid-90s fastball.

Bednar struck out seven Longhorns in a row at one point. As Texas batters left the box after flailing away, they'd flash a befuddled stare at him.

He struck out 15 in six-plus innings, giving up just one single in Mississippi State's 2-1 win over Texas. He walked one and hit a batter.

Only four balls were put into play against Bednar, who was as locked in as he has ever been.

“I felt like it was a great performance,” Bednar said. “Probably my best ever.”

He did his damage with a fastball up in the zone and a disappearing slider that produced ample swings and misses.

Bednar had a strut about him, too, walking off the mound after each K confidently.

So in a zone was Bednar that he barely noticed when a beach ball fell onto the field, causing short delays.

The home plate umpire motioned for Bednar to leave the mound. He didn't. He remained motionless on the rubber.

“I wanted to stay focused,” Bednar said.

It was a record-setting performance that drew raves from the baseball world.

Including his brother, David Bednar, a reliever with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

After the game, David Bednar retweeted a post from the SEC Network about his brother's 15-strikeout performance with one tongue-in-cheek line: “Is this good??”

It certainly was.

Will Bednar piled up more strikeouts than anyone else in a Mississippi State uniform in the CWS. He was only two shy of the all-time series record, set by Arizona State's Ed Bane against Oklahoma in 1972.

It was the most Ks in a CWS game since Kris Benson fanned 15 for Clemson against Miami in 1996.

“I grabbed Will after the game and handed him the game ball and told him that's one of the better performances ever here,” said Mississippi State head baseball coach Chris Lemonis.

Bednar walked the leadoff man in the bottom of the seventh and then threw one pitch to the next batter before he was removed from the game.

Bednar left the mound to a standing ovation.

“When I came out of the game, I wanted to stay in,” said Bednar, who threw 108 pitches in the win. “I was pretty mad when coach Lem came out.”

Bednar said he handled the pressure by treating the game like any other.

Bednar has scuffled a bit down the stretch, but found his groove at the best possible time against Texas, setting up a showdown against Virginia in the winner's bracket Tuesday.

“Obviously, it's really a lot of fun playing on a stage this big,” Bednar said. “It was really cool.”