The Florida State baseball team came through with a much better effort on Sunday than it did one night before, but the end result was the same.
The No. 3 seed Seminoles fell for the second time in less than 24 hours, dropping, a 2-1 decision to No. 2 seed UCLA, and have been eliminated from the NCAA Tournament's Auburn Regional.
Florida State's lone run came on a solo homer from freshman Jaime Ferrer in the bottom of the sixth inning. But the Bruins delivered solo homers in the seventh and ninth innings to secure the win.
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FSU has yet to advance to a Super Regional, let alone reach Omahe for the College World Series, since Martin Jr. took over for his coaching legend father following the 2019 season. But this was just his second complete season at the helm, since the 2020 campaign was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It is the standard. And it always will be the standard at Florida State," Martin Jr. said of reaching the CWS. "Our job is to recruit our tails off, evaluate the way we do things and make changes necessary. There's gonna be a lot of things that we're gonna look at."
One day after getting bombed by the host Auburn Tigers, 21-7, FSU received a strong starting performance from senior pitcher Jonah Scolaro. The veteran left-hander allowed just one run on five hits, with nine strikeouts, but he had to leave with one out in the seventh inning.
Then reliever Adam Haire gave up the winning run on a homer in the ninth.
"Jonah gave us everything he had, just like he always does," Martin Jr. said.
FSU's season ends at 34-25. The Bruins will move on to face Auburn in the championship round.
Florida State's offense generated seven hits against UCLA's pitchers but mounted few scoring threats. The Seminoles struck out 10 times and drew just one walk.
Ferrer's homer was FSU's only extra-base hit on the day, and freshman James Tibbs was the only player to record two hits.
Florida State's season ends in the NCAA Regionals for the second straight year and the third time in the last four postseason tournaments.
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