FSU Baseball: Something Happened in Louisville

For the first time in five years, Florida State will be one of the final eight teams playing in Omaha. The Seminoles clinched that trip with a 19-0 victory over Sam Houston State in the second game of the Tallahassee Super Regional on Sunday night.

After waiting more than seven hours for the contest to start, FSU dominated from the very first batter to hand the Bearkats the worst loss in Super Regional history. With the lopsided victory, the Seminoles punched their ticket back to the College World Series — something that seemed unthinkable just over a month ago.

Coming into the 2017 season, it would not have been a surprise to think that FSU could reach the College World Series. The Seminoles were one game from getting there last year and returned virtually every key piece of their roster with the exception of third baseman John Sansone.

As the calendar turned from April to May however, FSU had the look of a team fighting just to get into the NCAA Tournament. The Seminoles were just 27-18 and had just dropped the final two games of a 3-game home set to Virginia. Up until that point, Florida State had seemed to find ways to lose.

In the first midweek game against South Florida, FSU blew a 2-run ninth inning lead, using six different pitchers in the frame in a 4-2 loss. There was the 1-0 loss at Florida on March 14 in which the Seminoles wasted a career-start from Andrew Karp. There was the 5-2 loss at Florida Gulf Coast the following night where FSU left 15 men on base.

Three days later, FSU blew a 10-2 lead in a loss at Virginia Tech, only to get shut out in the rubber game the next day, 17-0 — the worst shutout loss in program history. Against North Carolina on April 1, Florida State was one out away from a combined no-hitter, only to lose in 11 innings. Trying to avoid the sweep the next day, FSU blew a 6-2 lead in a 7-6 loss.

After a 4-game sweep over Pacific, in which the Seminoles struggled in three of the games, and an impressive 21-2 win over Jacksonville, FSU dropped two of three at home to Wake Forest in mid-May in what appeared at the time to be the final games at Dick Howser Stadium for 2017.

The final series of the regular season saw FSU travel to then No. 2 Louisville. The Seminoles were 33-20 and just 12-14 in ACC play. A first-ever losing season in conference play looked inevitable. Coming into what was scheduled to be a 3-game series, the Cardinals had lost just twice all season in front of their home crowd.

For Florida State in 2017, that was the scene where everything seemed to change.

In the series opener on May 18, the Seminoles overcame a 7-3 deficit to score more runs than any Louisville opponent all season in a 12-9 victory. The following night, the Cardinals had no answer for Tyler Holton who worked eight strong innings in an 8-2 FSU win. The third game of the series was canceled by weather, which prevented FSU from finishing with a winning record in ACC play while simultaneously avoiding a losing one.

Rather than head back to Tallahassee, the Seminoles stayed in Louisville where the ACC Tournament began just a few days later. Against 12th-seeded Notre Dame to open the conference tournament, FSU needed 12 innings to beat the Fighting Irish, 5-3, on a 2-run walk-off home run by Jackson Lueck. The walk-off shot came just an inning and a half after Steven Wells, Jr. caught a fly-ball in right field and gunned down what would have been the go-ahead run for the Fighting Irish at the plate.

From there, the Seminoles finished the ACC Tournament with three straight 4-run victories. The Seminoles beat Louisville for a third time in nine days, 6-2. They capped the conference tournament with a 5-1 semifinal victory over Duke and a 7-3 victory over ACC Coastal winner North Carolina for the conference crown, which was highlighted by a 5-run eighth inning.

The hot finish allowed FSU to go from bubble team to regional host, but in the Tallahassee Regional, the Seminoles took the long road to the NCAA Super Regionals by dropping the opener to Tennessee Tech. After beating UCF and Tennessee Tech in elimination games, FSU was faced with the task of winning two in a row against Auburn to prolong its season.

Against Auburn last Sunday night, the Seminoles seemed to have reverted to their early-season ways. FSU took a 6-4 lead into the top of the ninth inning, only to see the Tigers score three times. With two outs and no one on in the bottom half of the inning, the season looked inevitably over.

Fortunately for the Seminoles, Taylor Walls was able to draw a walk. The very next hitter, Dylan Busby, drove a 3-2 pitch off the center field wall for a game-tying triple. An inning later, J.C. Flowers was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded for a walk-off RBI. The next night with the regional at stake, Will Zirzow tossed a 2-hit shutout as FSU advanced with a 6-0 victory.

The fighting spirit and never-say-die approach prevailed again on Saturday in the first game of the Tallahassee Super Regional. Trailing Sam Houston State 6-3 in the seventh inning with two outs and none on, five straight FSU players reached base. Jackson Lueck, Quincy Nieporte and Cal Raleigh put together three straight RBI singles to tie the game. Two innings later, Lueck ended it with a walk-off single.

A seven and a half hour rain delay and a 19-0 victory one day later has the Seminoles bound for Omaha.

Whereas the Seminoles were finding ways to lose early in the season, they are now finding ways to win. In Saturday’s win over Sam Houston State, the Seminoles gave away outs and made base-running blunders, but still managed to win with a stellar bullpen effort and timely hitting. Blowing late leads like it did against Auburn on June 4 was a death sentence early in the season, but now FSU is finding ways to overcome even the self-inflicted obstacles.

In some areas however, tangible improvement can be measured. For much of the season, starting pitching was inconsistent. Entering the NCAA Tournament, Cole Sands, Drew Parrish and Karp all had ERAs over five. Since the final game of the regular season, starters have posted a 1.58 ERA.

Since arriving in Louisville in mid-May, the Seminoles are averaging 7.3 runs per game. Only once in the last 13 games has FSU scored fewer than five runs. Since arriving in Louisville, the Seminoles are 12-1 as a team.

From the start of the 2017 season until less than a month ago, the campaign for Florida State seemed like a disaster. FSU was 1-hit to open the year against Virginia Commonwealth, which snapped a streak of 18 straight season-opening victories.

The 14-14 record in ACC play also made the 2017 Seminoles the first since joining the ACC to not have a winning record in conference play. Those dubious distinctions aside, the team now looks to hold the distinction of being the first for FSU to win a national championship.

With at least four national seeds heading to Omaha and possibly five, accomplishing that feat will be far from easy for Florida State. Whether this team is finally the one to bring home that coveted first national championship or not, the late-season surge by head coach Mike Martin’s team has been nothing short of remarkable. What or how things managed to turn around isn’t completely clear, but looking back, it’s safe to say that something happened in Louisville.

Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson