Florida State pitchers Andrew Armstrong, Connor Hults
OMAHA — In Tuesday’s College World Series action, a powerful Florida State offense took down North Carolina in an elimination game.
The previously scheduled nightcap between Florida and Texas A&M was postponed due to inclement weather. There were North Dakota-esque winds down in the central part of the Midwest on Tuesday, and despite the warm weather, heavy rain and lighting were expected for the evening.
But the Seminoles and Tar Heels still got the afternoon game in. It ended in another team being eliminated from the highly competitive eight-team field.
“They’re difficult, for sure,” North Carolina head coach Scott Forbes said, regarding the moments where he has to say goodbye to his players. “But if you really step back and think about it, they’re difficult because you care so much about them, and they care so much about each other… I hate to see them hurting.”
Florida State 9, North Carolina 5
Early control problems for the Tar Heels
The Seminoles built an early lead by working the count.
North Carolina starter Aidan Haugh actually set them down 1-2-3 in the first inning, including strikeouts of the dangerous Max Williams and James Tibbs III. But after walking Jaime Ferrer with one out in the second, Haugh never really found it again.
Singles from Daniel Cantu and Drew Faurot put Florida State up 1-0. Then in the third inning, Haugh walked Cam Smith and Tibbs III, back-to-back. After hitting Marco Dinges to load the bases, he left the game prematurely. He recorded only seven outs.
The first man out of the bullpen for North Carolina, Matthew Matthijs, only lasted a single batter. Ferrer worked his second walk of the game against him, making it 2-0.
So the Tar Heels turned to their bullpen ace, Dalton Pence — who, to his credit, limited the damage. The first pitch he threw was hit for a sacrifice fly, but he stopped the bleeding in a long top half of the third.
Still, four consecutive free passes in the frame led to Florida State having a 3-0 advantage.
“They seem very focused,” Seminoles head coach Link Jarrett said of his hitters. “They’re talented. Our assistant coaches do a really good job of giving them an idea of what’s going on with each arm.”
The Seminoles got to one of the best relievers in the country
Speaking of Pence, the usually-great left-hander didn’t have it on Tuesday.
Pence entered the game with a 1.92 ERA. He’s been one of the best relief pitchers in college baseball this year.
(He also has a slight connection to Devils Lake journal sports writer Mojo Hill, as he was a member of the summer ball team Hill covered last summer.)
He was fine for the first 1 2/3 innings he threw on Tuesday; a double play helped him work around a couple singles in the fourth.
But he wasn’t so fortunate in the fifth. The Seminoles tallied six hits against him, including four of the first five batters.
“I feel like he couldn’t get that cutter where he wanted to throw it,” Forbes said. “But man, golly; talking about a kid that we wouldn’t be here without.”
Tibbs III led off with a double, and Florida State received singles from Ferrer, Cantu, Alex Lodise, Jaxson West and Williams amidst the rally.
“I think we’ve done a good job as an offense, putting together better at-bats,” West said. “Our identity as an offense is just continuing to scratch and claw. And we’ve kind of morphed into that.”
Vance Honeycutt ignited some life into North Carolina
It would have been easy to call this game a rout after the top of the fifth.
Starter Andrew Armstrong gave Florida State a solid outing, tying his season high with 4 1/3 innings. When he left, there were two runners on with one out, but the Seminoles still led 7-1.
Then Honeycutt showed up.
“I would use the word ‘electric,’” Forbes said of Honeycutt.
The Tar Heels’ red-hot leadoff hitter, who’s projected to be a first-round draft pick next month, slammed a three-run homer to greet relief pitcher Conner Whittaker rudely. It sliced the gap in half, from 7-1 to 7-4.
It was Honeycutt’s sixth homer of the tournament.
“Man, I’m gonna just miss watching him,” Forbes said. “He is something else, isn’t he? One of the best I’ve ever coached.”
Things didn’t get any easier for Whittaker after that. A single, a walk and a single brought in another run, and it was a two-run game just like that. Whittaker was unable to finish the inning.
“It’s just kind of how this team’s been all year,” Honeycutt said. “There’s just no quit. That’s a credit to how we’re trained, how we’re coached and the character of the guys in the locker room.”
So, despite what briefly looked like a commanding lead for Florida State, the fifth inning was moot. Each team scored four runs, and each team sent exactly nine batters to the plate.
The Tar Heels’ control problems nearly bit them again, as reliever Matt Poston walked three in the sixth. More than an hour had passed since that marathon fifth inning started. But North Carolina held on to whatever momentum it could, getting a strikeout of Faurot to end the frame.
Despite comeback bid, Florida State held on
After the mid-game dramatics, it was mostly a stagnant cruise to the finish line.
Florida State’s Connor Hults threw the final 4 1/3 scoreless innings following Whittaker’s disastrous outing. He survived a Jackson Van De Brake double in the eighth, keeping that two-run cushion alive.
“I was able to locate some fastballs and then expand on my offspeed when needed,” Hults said. “It definitely worked out in our favor.”
Hults issued a leadoff walk in the ninth, but otherwise shut the door. It included a strikeout of Honeycutt. It might have been easy to say after the fact, but Jarrett certainly didn’t regret leaving Hults out there.
“We were going to the ninth,” Jarrett said. “He comes in the dugout after that — ‘Don’t even think about it!’ There were some other words mixed in there. I’m so happy for him.”
Cameron Padgett, meanwhile, went 2 1/3 innings without surrendering a run for the Tar Heels. But he finally cracked in the ninth inning. West smacked an opposite-field home run off the top of the left field fence, and Williams went back-to-back. The bombs gave Florida State some insurance with a 9-5 lead.
It was the fourth hit of the game for West, the No. 9 hitter for Florida State.
“It feels amazing,” West said. “Being able to contribute, especially with an offense like this, being in the nine-hole. Your job is to get on base, set the table. So that’s all I was really focusing on. I’m not trying to do too much.”
The win advanced Florida State to a rematch with No. 1-seeded Tennessee, which beat Florida State in a thrilling 12-11 contest last Friday.
“I recognize the difficulty of beating that team,” Jarrett said. “It takes everything you got. You have to finish. You have to defend. You have to execute pitches. And you have to be versatile and complete offensively to figure out a way to do it.”
