OMAHA, Neb. -- This maddening game, which had been so beautiful for Florida State as of late, turned cruel again for the Seminoles on Monday night.
Michigan didn’t really pitch any better than FSU in the Wolverines' 2-0 victory. Didn’t hit the ball better, either ... other than a solo home run on the second pitch of the game.
The Wolverines struck out 17 times against Seminoles pitching. Only one team in the history of the College World Series has struck out more. So we can’t sit here and act like the Wolverines just completely out-played Mike Martin's team.
They put 11 balls in play the entire night. But seven of those 11 went for base hits. That’s just how this goofy sport we all love works out sometimes.
That is to take nothing away from Michigan's Tommy Henry. The junior left-hander was great. And this isn’t to make excuses for the Florida State offense. Because it has scored exactly two runs in its last 26 innings. That’s anemic.
But it’s easy to look anemic when you’re facing two straight second-round MLB draft picks to start the College World Series. And it’s easy to look anemic when you’re playing in TD Amer-Cavern Park.
The good news for Florida State? Usually, if you manage to score just one run in your first two games in Omaha, you’re on a flight after the second one.
Not this team. This team is still alive -- even after seeing a seven-game postseason win streak come crashing to a halt. The Seminoles will be playing Texas Tech on Wednesday night in an elimination game. And as good as the Red Raiders are, they don’t have a Tommy Henry or an Isaiah Campbell.
“They kicked our fanny,” Mike Martin said after Monday's loss. “And Tommy Henry? If I was playing Michigan next year, I’d be real glad because I know he’s gone.”
If anything, Monday was a slap back to the reality of this sport.
Think about Arkansas. One of the best teams in the nation all season. A botched pop-up from winning the national championship last season, and a Top 8 national seed heading into this postseason. The Razorbacks are already done. On their way back home. Two games. Two one-run losses. See ya.
Florida State is still here. It doesn’t look good, obviously. Instead of just having to win one more game to advance to the championship round like Michigan, the Seminoles will have to win three in a row. That’s a tough road. Maybe too tough for this team. We’ll see. But they are still here. Still breathing. Still waiting to break out of an offensive funk that now dates back to the fourth inning of the second LSU game.
Sometimes this sport makes you want to punt things. It's just the way it is.
Less than 24 hours ago, it felt like this was the perfect set-up for Florida State. A 1-0 win in Game 1 and a matchup with another No. 3 seed in the second game. But that No. 3 seed just so happened to have a second-round draft pick on the mound. And he was a lefty.
Florida State hadn’t faced any left-handers all postseason. And Michigan played great behind him. The Wolverines' left-fielder was positioned perfectly on at least three balls that could’ve been extra-base hits.
The second baseman and the first baseman both made diving stops for outs. And Henry was tremendous.
When it got to the fifth inning, I thought the story of the game was going to be the many great Michigan at-bats, which drove up C.J. Van Eyk’s pitch count. He struck out nine guys, but almost all of them came after long battles. He was at 100 pitches before getting two outs in the fifth inning.
So if that was the plan by Michigan -- to get Van Eyk out of the game early – it worked to perfection.
But heck, that didn’t matter at all. Chase Haney and Jonah Scolaro were lights out in relief. Scolaro struck out all six batters he faced. The Wolverines couldn’t touch him.
And yet Henry and the defense and the numerous at-'em balls made sure it didn’t matter.
That’s baseball.
“That’s just how the cookie crumbles sometimes,” junior first baseman Carter Smith said. “The wind was blowing in. Mike (Salvatore) pieced up a ball. Robby (Martin) pieced up a ball at the end there, and they made a diving play. Our offense is so momentum-based. Guys get the big hit and the train starts rolling. But you have the wind blowing in 10-12 miles per hour, straight in, those big doubles over kids’ heads we're not getting. So it’s just tough to get into a rhythm.
"But we’ll figure out a way. We always do.”
Two quick things here: I didn’t even know "piecing up" a baseball was a thing. I’ve apparently been out of the game too long and can’t keep up with the lingo. But I'm a quick learner, and I darned sure know FSU needs to start piecing up more balls all over the field.
And secondly: Smith isn’t making excuses here. This park is just not what college baseball typically is. Look at all these scores. Unless a team strings together three or four hits in a row, or if a pitcher just has terrible command, or if a defense just falls apart (see Auburn vs. Mississippi State), it’s really, really, really hard to have a big inning out here.
Through six games, not one team has scored more than five runs in a game. Most have scored far less.
Arkansas is one of the best hitting teams in the country. The Hogs scored a total of four runs in two games.
Vanderbilt is incredible. The Commodores had five hits against Louisville in Game 1.
That’s just what happens in this place. Low scores are the norm. Big innings are almost non-existent.
And for Florida State, big hits have been non-existent for a while now.
But again, this dream isn’t over.
The Seminoles are still here.
And hey, this team is now in a position where nobody thinks they’ll make it out of this bracket and into the championship series. That’s the kind of spot they’ve thrived in for the last three weeks. So let’s see what happens.
It’s already been a magical ride. Monday night was a bucket of cold water, but it wasn’t a knockout punch.
Mike Martin is still coaching the Florida State Seminoles. They’re still in Omaha. They still have a pulse. At least for one more game.
Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.
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