FSU baseball's season ends with another CWS loss to Tennessee - TheOsceola: Florida State Seminoles Football & Basketball Recruiting

Published Jun 19, 2024

FSU baseball's season ends with another CWS loss to Tennessee

Curt Weiler • TheOsceola

Senior Writer

Omaha, Neb. -- All good things must come to an end.

Even Florida State baseball's memorable postseason run.

Given the chance at College World Series revenge Wednesday afternoon vs. No. 1 overall seed Tennessee, the Seminoles went down with a whimper instead of a shout.

After scoring 27 runs in their first three games at Charles Schwab Field, the Seminoles (49-17) were held scoreless through six innings Wednesday, putting themselves in an early hole they were unable to climb out of in a 7-2 loss to the Volunteers in the CWS Semifinals.

"It's not easy to get here. That walk in here (Charles Schwab Field) is great," FSU head coach Link Jarrett said. "That walk out is very difficult. Very difficult."

The Vols (58-12) staked themselves to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning, putting four of their first five batters on base off freshman starter John Abraham and chasing him after just one-third of an inning.

FSU was robbed of at least one run in the bottom of the first by an incredible leaping catch at the wall by UT centerfielder Kavares Tears.

Tennessee added an additional run in the second, another in the fourth and one more in the sixth, staking themselves to a 6-0 lead while FSU's offense squandered opportunities to play its way back into the game.

"We did not get out of the gate well against them," Jarrett said. "We found ourselves in a little bit of a hole."

In the bottom of the third, FSU put two runners in scoring position for the heart of its order after Jaxson West and Max Williams began the inning with a single followed by a double. The Seminoles came up empty, though, when Cam Smith chopped one to shortstop and West took off late on the play and was easily thrown out at home and then James Tibbs III grounded into an inning-ending 6-3 double play.

Smith and Tibbs, the two FSU players expected to be taken in the first round of July's MLB Draft, were a combined 1 for 8 Wednesday with a single and finish the CWS 5 for 31 (.161).

After that squandered third inning, the FSU bats went quiet, starting a span of 10 straight batters retired. Tennessee starter Zander Sechrist allowed just three hits over six scoreless innings before Daniel Cantu and Alex Lodise chased him with back-to-back homers in the seventh inning.

Brennen Oxford (two runs on four hits over 3.1 innings) and Joe Charles (one run on three hits over 4.1 innings) gave FSU's offense a chance with strong outings out of the bullpen in relief of Abraham.

"Oxford settled things down. I think Joe pitched great," Jarrett said.

But the FSU offense never came through with the clutch hits it did in each of the team's first three games in Omaha. The Seminoles finished their final game of the 2024 season with seven hits and were 1 for 11 with runners on base, 1 for 9 with two outs and 0 for 2 with runners in scoring position.

While the numbers are not great, Jarrett made a point of saying he felt his team's offensive approach was better on Wednesday than the numbers showed, with quite a few hard-hit balls that were kept from being hits because of very nice defensive plays or because they were hit right at defenders.

"Had a few of those balls landed differently or couple feet one way or another direction, I think this is a much tighter game," Jarrett said. "I'm not saying we deserved to win the game, but it was close to being far different than it felt today."

The Seminoles end their season one win shy of their first 50-win season since 2012 and two wins shy of their first appearance in the CWS Championship since 1999.