Florida State baseball wins College World Series opener against No. 5 Arkansas
Wayne McGahee IIIOMAHA, Neb. – It was a battle of wills between Florida State and Arkansas. The Razorbacks blinked first.
FSU (42-21) pulled out a 1-0 victory over No. 5 national seed Arkansas (46-19) in front of 26,155 fans at TD Ameritrade park in the College World Series on Saturday night.
"You got a chance to see a great ball game," FSU coach Mike Martin said.
"You got a chance to see a young man pitch a ballgame that's going to be remembered for a while. You saw a team that's not won the first game out here in a long time. The team that we played is one the top teams in the country. It was a great win for us."
The Seminoles scored the only run of the game in the ninth inning on a sacrifice fly to right by second baseman Nander De Sedas. De Sedas drove in center fielder J.C. Flowers, who raced home to beat the throw.
FSU will now move on to the winner’s bracket to play Michigan (47-20) in a battle of the last four teams in the NCAA Tournament.
"Every win in the playoffs has been exciting," FSU third baseman Drew Mendoza said.
"From the last four in to now, it's been a wild ride. Every win is sweeter than the one before."
FSU is now 9-15 in College World Series opening games. It’s the first win to open a College World Series since 1999.
Left-handed starter Drew Parrish (9-5) picks up the win. Arkansas reliever Cody Scroggins (3-1) picked up his first loss of the season. Center fielder J.C. Flowers picked up his 13th save of the season.
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"(Parrish) just showed his dominance," FSU catcher Mat Nelson said.
"He knows this stage and he's been here before. He was here as a freshman and he knows how to go about his business. He knew what he had to do to get the job done."
The Seminoles are participating in their 23rd College World Series in program history and the 17th under coach Mike Martin.
FSU improves to 1-5 all-time against the Razorbacks with the victory and improves to 30-44 in the College World Series.
It was FSU's seventh straight win and its fifth straight win over an SEC opponent in the NCAA Tournament.
Pitcher’s duel
FSU starter Drew Parrish and Arkansas ace Isaiah Campbell both had stellar outings.
Campbell threw seven innings of scoreless baseball allowing five hits with 10 strikeouts and two walks. He kept the FSU hitters off-balance with a low-90s fastball and a slider that the Seminoles weren’t able to do anything with.
"Y'all saw the same game that I did, and that was just a masterpiece of pitching by these two men," FSU coach Mike Martin said.
"It was a game in which you're on the edge of your seat the entire nine innings. It was extremely well-played by both teams. Isaiah pitched beautiful baseball for them, also. It was a game that if you knew you could go to a baseball game every night, you would be big-time baseball fans because that's the way you hope that your team plays every night."
Parrish didn’t have as many strikeouts as Campbell did, but that doesn’t mean he was any less dominant.
He threw eight scoreless innings with nine strikeouts to just two walks and five hits.
Parrish got into a jam in his final inning after allowing a lead-off double and a grounder to put a runner on third with one out for the two and three-hole hitters in the eighth.
Parrish struck out shortstop Casey Martin and designated hitter Matt Goodheart to end the inning and preserve the scoreless tie.
"With runners on he did a great job of making pitches, mixing pitches and he just mixed the whole game, all three of them, changeup, curveball, fastball," Arkansas first baseman Trevor Ezell said.
"Kept us off balance and those couple times we had him in trouble he really dug deep, and made pitches and got some strikeouts and we weren't able to score."
Aggressive baserunning pays off
FSU and Arkansas went to the ninth inning in a scoreless tie.
Flowers was hit by Cronin to open up the inning, which put the winning run on base. That brought FSU first baseman Carter Smith to the plate.
The Seminoles put a hit-and-run on and Smith hit a grounder up the middle. Arkansas shortstop Casey Martin fielded the ball on the right side of second base and attempted to put the tag on Flowers.
Flowers slid through the tag sending the ball and Martin's glove flying, which left two runners on with no outs.
"Shortstop was breaking to the bag a little bit late, runner hit it or batter hit it and kind of hit it at us and had an opportunity to field it, tag and throw, probably get a double play," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said.
"I think it was all just so tight in there he didn't have a chance to really get his glove in position to make a tag with that hard contact. He lost his glove and everything. Again, it's just the way it is. That's the way the game works."
Martin was injured on the play, but stayed in the game.
Nelson put a bunt down to move both runners into scoring position.
De Sedas hit a shallow fly to right field in the next at-bat, and Flowers was able to race home in front of the throw to score the winning run.
Standout defense
FSU’s defense has struggled this season, but the Seminoles came to play against the Razorbacks.
Center fielder J.C. Flowers had an incredible catch in the second inning that would have been at least a double for the Arkansas right fielder Heston Kjerstad. Flowers made the leaping grab on the warning track before slamming into the wall. He held onto the ball for the out.
"Off the bat, I thought it was a home run, and I was kind of kicking myself then he leaps up there and makes a top 10 play," Parrish said.
"That's just proof that your teammates have your back."
FSU also had multiple players make leaping catches in the infield. Shortstop Mike Salvatore made one of those on the first batter of the game.
The Seminoles turned a double play on a line drive to second baseman Nander De Sedas, who threw out the Razorback runner at third to end the third inning.
The only error FSU had in the game came on a catcher's interference call.
Read more:Drew Parrish puts on a show in the College World Series | Wayne McGahee III
Up Next
FSU will play UM on Monday at 7 p.m. in the College World Series. That game will be broadcast on ESPN. UM beat Texas Tech 5-3 in the opening game of the College World Series. The Seminoles will be the home team.
FSU will throw sophomore C.J. Van Eyk (10-3, 3.80 ERA) against the Wolverines.
Reach Wayne McGahee III at wmcgahee@tallahassee.com.