For the second straight year, Florida State will have to win four straight games to get out of the Tallahassee Regional. The No. 7 national seed Seminoles couldn’t escape an early hole on Friday night in a 7-6 loss to Samford at Dick Howser Stadium.
FSU now faces elimination and will look to prolong its season on Saturday against the region’s No. 2 seed, Mississippi State. The Bulldogs fell to Oklahoma on Friday, 20-10. Fourth-seeded Samford will take on the third-seeded Sooners.
The Good: If there is good news for the Seminoles, it’s that they were in the exact same situation last year and in 2008 and advanced both times. Both of those FSU teams would go on to reach the College World Series.
The Bad: Florida State’s luck when it came to healthy starting pitchers took another hit on Friday night. Junior Cole Sands left the game in the third inning with an apparent injury to his side. The Seminoles lost ace Tyler Holton in the season opener and were without Will Zirzow for most of the year.
The Ugly: Not much went right for FSU on Friday night. In addition to losing Sands, the Seminoles committed three errors, leading to an unearned run. FSU was dreadful when it came to situational hitting. FSU third baseman Drew Mendoza was also thrown out at third base on what should have been a single to load the bases.
Studs of the Game: Samford’s Brooks Carlson was 2-for-5 with a 2-run home run that put the Bulldogs ahead for good and had two runs scored. Austin Edens was 3-for-3 with a run and an RBI in the victory. Mike Salvatore had a 2-run triple for the Seminoles.
Duds of the Game: FSU second baseman Rafael Bournigal was 0-for-1 at the plate, but committed three errors in the field before being pulled for Nick Derr. Jackson Lueck was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts for FSU in the loss. Reliever Clayton Kwiatkowski yielded four runs and three earned in 1 2/3 innings. Ayrton Schafer was 0-for-3 for Samford.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson
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