If the road to Omaha proved how far FSU has come this season, tonight showed how far they have to go.
Florida State was one out — one pitch — away from starting the 2024 College World Series with a victory.
Instead, after a controversial ball call on what appeared to be a hit, the Seminoles saw the last gasp of a four-point lead slip away as the No. 1 seed Tennessee Volunteers 1, brought the score to 11-11 at the end of the match. ninth.
Know that refereeing is difficult and respect what they do. It’s a thankless job and has no fans. But how can this not happen? Hard to do that in the CWS pic.twitter.com/ar7pSexDRN
–Ariya Massoudi (@AriyaMassoudi) June 15, 2024
Two batters later, a single to left center returned the winning run and sent Florida State into the loser’s bracket.
The spotty defense and bullpen have been this team’s weak points all season, and they’ve always found a way to show up in the most critical moments. A pitching staff collapse and poor baseball got the Noles in. The Volunteers tore through Micah Posey’s staff for 18 hits and scored five runs over the final two innings, along with two outs and situational hits. Ten of Tennessee’s 18 hits came with two men down, and the Volunteers went 5-11 with runners in scoring position, compared to 4-16 for Florida State. While 11 runs usually wins a baseball game, there were multiple opportunities FSU could have blown the game open, but against the best offense in the country, every pitch makes a difference.
From the first batter of the match, there were many moments of strangeness and confusion. Max Williams reached first on technically a hit, but Tennesse first baseman Blake Burke inexplicably ran toward the ball hit at 2B instead of covering the bag. Cam Smith walked and James Tibbs hit a fielder’s choice, putting runners on the corners with one out. After Dinges grounded out, Jamie Ferrer walked, but a run occurred and Williams scored on the wild pitch. Alex Lodise struck out the bases loaded, but Florida State started the game as needed.
1-0 – but FSU’s early lead would be short-lived.
The first three Tennessee batters reached, led by a Christian Moore triple, as the Volunteers tied it instantly. Another run came in to score, and without a no-one double play, the score could have been worse.
However, the tense emotions didn’t stop with Arnold. After Jaxson West found himself on second following a defensive error by another Vols, he committed a baserunning error by failing to score on a single to right by Williams to tie the game. In the ensuing at-bat, Smith hit a double play to end the inning with FSU trailing 2-1.
The southpaw looked like the first team’s all-ACC pitcher with back-to-back outs to start the second, but he ran into trouble with two outs. A five-pitch walk to the nine-hole batter brought Moore up for the second time in two innings, and he hit a double down the left field. A nice throw gave West the ball as the runner tried to get home, but he dropped the ball with Tennessee leading 3-1. Then Moore scored as Arnold missed a slow roller to the mound as the Noles unraveled.
Trailing 4-1, Link Jarrett’s team needed an answer in the third. James Tibbs led off the leadoff with a single to center before Dinges’ lineout allowed Tibbs to advance to third as he advanced to second. Jamie Ferrer’s notable day continued with a double into the right-center gap, allowing batters 3-4 to score. A single by Daniel Cantu and a walk by Lodise loaded the bases with no one left.
After a draw by Drew Faurot, West received a free pass that allowed the tying point to be scored. Williams smashed a ground ball to second, setting up an easy-to-convert double play as the lineup turned. Except, for the second time tonight, Burke made a mistake, missed the ball on the transfer from the court, and two points were obtained with FSU leading 6-4. With two outs, Cam Smith, the eighth batter of the game, joined in the fun and doubled to left, sending Williams home from first.
After a dominant display of his attack, Arnold had his best and fastest round. He recorded his third of four strikeouts for the first out of the frame before turning in his second double play of the evening to quickly end the third on eight pitches.
As the bats warmed up, Dinges and Ferrer took advantage. The DH reached base to start the fourth, then Ferrer scooped up a cement mixer breaking ball, depositing the ball for the first home run of the College World Series as FSU pushed ahead 9-4. In the bottom half, Arnold ran into trouble for the third time in four trips, but a ball to Williams allowed him to escape the bases-loaded jam.
Florida State’s lineup settled down with a 1-2-3 fifth for the first time all day before the Tampa native allowed more points. After looking to settle down by starting the game with a strikeout, he gave up a walk before Kavares Tears, Tennessee’s left-handed six-hole hitter, who is batting .330, brought the game back into three with a homer of his owning a bad breaking ball.
Arnold lasted five innings as Jarrett brought in Conner Whittaker in the top of the sixth to face the top of Tennessee’s lineup. He looked inconsistent for the second straight game and pitched well – not great as usual. Against a Volunteer lineup like this, Nolan Ryan would allow runs, and with no defensive help yet again, two unearned runs occurred. But he hasn’t pitched well against lefties, as evidenced by the left-handed HR, the first against a lefty since Pittsburgh.
When the Super Regional hero walked in, so did Moore, the SEC Triple Crown winner. Missing a home run in his quest to hit for the cycle, Moore etched his name in Omaha history by demolishing a 440-foot blast to dead center. Whittaker settled the match, getting the next three, but a single five-point advantage was cut to two with three innings to play.
Needing insurance, the FSU bats returned to work after a two-inning slump. West and Smith walked sandwiched between strikeouts of Williams and Tibbs. With two RISPs and two outs, Dinges faced a southpaw, where he hit .400. He needed a throw to double the advantage with a double-bagger to left center.
Pitching behind an 11-7 lead, Whittaker took control. He struck out his first two batters before working around a two-out single in the infield with his third strikeout of the frame. He ran his fastball up to 93 and matched his slider perfectly.
In the eighth, he continued to mow down the UT order with consecutive outs before finding trouble with two outs. The right-hander allowed three straight hits, resulting in a run to score, but a dribbler on the mound gave FSU an 11-8 lead in the ninth.
As the 2-3-4 quietly fell, the Vols began to make a comeback. A leadoff triple against Tears got the Garnet and Gold’s heartbeats up before a sac fly made it a two-run game. Facing 8-9 batters, Jarrett called on his most reliable reliever, Brennen Oxford, clinging to an 11-9 advantage.
After struggling against UConn, Oxford didn’t stop its momentum. He walked the first batter he faced before Moore doubled for his fifth hit of the day. Burke, another all-SEC hitter, lined a single to center that tied the game before two more base hits put the winning run in scoring position. Jarrett handed the play to Connor Hults, and the freshman didn’t stop the bleeding.
On its second throw, Tennessee fielded a ball into space, leaving Florida State scoring four points in the final frame. As magical as this season has been, this is the toughest loss of the season, perhaps the toughest break in years.
Florida State is now 9-15 all-time entering the College World Series opener.
The Seminoles will now face the Virginia Cavaliers at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 16 and the game will be broadcast on ESPN.
Florida State beat the Cavaliers 12-7 last month in the ACC Tournament, the only matchup between the two this season (61-34 all-time).