Omaha, Neb. – Gray skies hovered over the Omaha skyline on Tuesday afternoon in the elimination round, with two Atlantic Coast Conference programs battling it out. The No. 8 ranked program in the nation, Florida State University Seminoles, beat the No. 4 University of North Carolina Tar Heels 9-5 at Charles Schwab Field in front of 23,407 fans in attendance.
“Great team across the field. Did a great job this year in our league. Won the league, and they’re a phenomenal team. So the quality of that team explains how well these guys executed today to win that game on this stage,” FSU head coach Link Jarrett said during the postgame press conference.
Florida State University has never won the best-of-three National Championship Series title but has been the runner-up twice in its program history at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium: in 1986, losing to Arizona, and in 1999, losing to Miami in three games.
The FSU offense tacked on their first run in the top of the second inning when second baseman Drew Faurot rocked an RBI single up the middle into center field, scoring left fielder Jaime Ferrer to make it 1-0.
UNC head coach Scott Forbes went to his bullpen early in the top of the third inning and called on relief pitcher Matthew Matthijs to replace starting pitcher Aidan Haugh.
Haugh threw 2.1 innings, allowing two hits, one earned run, three walks, and three strikeouts on Tuesday afternoon.
A few moments later, Matthijs faced Ferrer and walked him with the bases loaded on a 3-1 count, scoring third baseman Cam Smith to extend the lead to 2-0.
Matthijs was pulled shortly after walking Ferrer in the top of the third inning, with Forbes coming out of the dugout to call upon relief pitcher Dalton Pence from the left-field bullpen.
Pence gave up a sacrifice fly to center field to first baseman Daniel Cantu with the first batter he faced, scoring right fielder James Tibbs III to mark the game’s third run.
In the bottom of the third inning, the UNC offense finally cracked the scoreboard with left fielder Casey Cook rocking a two-out RBI double down the right field line, scoring center fielder Vance Honeycutt to make it 3-1.
During the top of the the fifth inning, the Florida State offense ignited four runs on the board starting with Cantu drilling an RBI single through the left side of the infield, scoring Tibbs III to extend the lead to 4-1.
The next batter, shortstop Alex Lodise, pieced an RBI single to left field, scoring Ferrer to make it 5-1.
A few batters later, catcher Jaxson West slashed an RBI single to center field, scoring Cantu to break out a 6-1 lead.
Shortly after, center fielder Max Williams helped the Seminoles offense charge a six-run lead in the top of the fifth inning, with an RBI single to center field, scoring Lodise to make it 7-1.
Forbes called on relief pitcher Matt Poston out of the bullpen to take out Pence.
Pence threw 2.1 innings, allowing eight hits, four earned runs, and one strikeout.
FSU starting pitcher Andrew Armstrong was taken out of the game with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning after giving up an infield single to second baseman Alex Madera and walking shortstop Colby Wilkerson.
Jarrett called on relief pitcher Conner Whittaker for the bullpen to replace Armstrong after he threw 4.1 innings, allowing five hits, three earned runs, one walk, and one strikeout while facing 18 batters. Whittaker fired in 69 pitches with 42 strikes on Tuesday afternoon.
The Tar Heels in the bottom of the fifth inning did not go out quietly, while they pieced four runs, beginning with center fielder Vance Honeycutt driving a three-run home run over the left field wall, scoring Madera and Wilkerson to cut the lead to 7-4.
A few batters later, designated hitter Jackson Van De Brake rocked an RBI single up the middle, scoring first baseman Parker Harber to make it 7-5.
The Florida State offense added two more runs to the board in the top of the ninth inning, beginning with West launching a solo home run, his third of the season, into the left-field bullpen to extend the lead to 8-5.
“It feels amazing, being able to contribute, especially with an offense like this, being in the nine-hole, your job is just to get on base and set the table focusing. So that’s all I was really focusing on, not trying to do too much,” West said during the postgame press conference.
The next batter, Williams, joined the home run party with a solo shot, his 13th for the year, into the right field bullpen to capture a four-run lead 9-5.
The FSU pitching staff cruised the rest of the way and had six out of the last 14 batters to hit into ground ball outs from the bottom of the fifth until the bottom of the ninth inning.
FSU Seminoles relief pitcher Connor Hults came in aiming to work through four-plus innings out of the bullpen and got Cook to ground out to second baseman Drew Faurot as he threw over to Cantu for the final out of the game and beat the North Carolina Tar Heels 9-5 to live another day at the 2024 CWS.
Hults improved his record to 3-1 for the 2024 season and threw 4.1 innings, allowing two hits, one walk, and two strikeouts while dialing 57 pitches with 37 strikes.
Florida State will play No. 1 Tennessee (57-12) on Wednesday, June 19, at 2 p.m. EST. The Tennessee Volunteers record is 2-0 at the 2024 NCAA Division I CWS.
The winner of Florida and Kentucky will play No. 3 Texas A&M (51-13) at 7 p.m. EST on Wednesday, June 19. The Texas A&M University Aggies are 2-0 at the 2024 CWS.
Florida (35-29) will play an elimination game against No. 2 Kentucky (46-15) on Wednesday, June 19, at 11 a.m. EST.
The second game between Florida and Kentucky was moved from Tuesday to Wednesday due to impending weather in the Omaha metro area on Tuesday night. Its original start time was 6 p.m., but it was moved to Wednesday morning.
All 2024 NCAA Division I CWS games will be televised on the ESPN networks.
MLBPipeline.com Top 200 Draft Player Prospect Ranking Spotlight:
No. 20 Top 200 MLBpipeline.com Draft Player Prospect, outfielder Vance Honeycutt.
Lifetime stats in NCAA Career: ▪️ .291/.411/.634, 65 home runs, 170 RBIs, and 76 stolen bases.
Honeycutt hit six home runs in the 2024 NCAA tournament, the most by any player in the nation.
Honeycutt had two game-winning hits in the 2024 tournament, hitting a game-winning two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning against West Virginia University on June 8 and a game-winning single against Virginia on June 14 at the CWS in the bottom of the ninth inning.
(Photo Credit: USA TODAY Sports)
