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.