Ask any Florida State fan who he or she would want on the mound with the season on the line and the answer without hesitation would probably be Tyler Holton. Though it wouldn’t have been the scenario they would have envisioned on Saturday, that was the situation and the sophomore left-hander did not disappoint.
In the first elimination game of the Tallahassee Regional, Holton got the ball against second-seeded UCF with the task of delivering the Seminoles to Sunday. As has been the case for most of the season, Holton did his job and Florida State got the victory, which extended its streak of 40-win seasons to 40 years.
With Drew Carlton, Alec Byrd and Chase Haney all having pitched in Friday night’s loss to Tennessee Tech and the potential of having to play two games on Sunday, head coach Mike Martin needed Holton to go deep into the contest. Holton did him one better: he went the distance.
Although FSU hopes it won’t be the case, Holton dominated in what could have been his final start on the mound in the garnet and gold. For the second time in as many starts at Dick Howser Stadium and in four starts overall, Holton tossed a complete game, yielding just an unearned run on six hits while tying a career-high with 13 strikeouts.
The dominant performance earned Holton his 10th win against just two losses in what has been an All-American season. On 129 pitches, Holton also did not walk a batter, which gives him better than a 5-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio this year.
In the victory, Holton lowered his ERA to 2.05. That would be the lowest ERA for any Florida State pitcher to make at least 10 starts since Jonathan Johnson posted a 1.68 ERA in 1993.
Though just a sophomore, Holton will be draft-eligible this year, because of his age. He’ll turn 21 on June 13 — the second day of the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft.
For Florida State to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals for a third straight year, it will have to win the next three games. Given that the two remaining seeds in the Tallahassee Regional are the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds and the games are at Dick Howser Stadium, that happening is far from inconceivable. But if Saturday’s gem is the last we’ve seen from Tyler Holton on the mound for FSU, what a way to go out.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson
You must be logged in to post a comment Login