No. 15 Florida State extended its season by at least one more game with a 5-3 win Sunday over Tennessee Tech in the Tallahassee Regional elimination game at Dick Howser Stadium.
FSU (41-21), the top seed in the regional, will face third-seeded Auburn (37-24). First pitch was set to start around 8:15 p.m.
Should the Seminoles beat the No. 23 Tigers, who are 2-0 in the regional, it would force a winner-take-all game set for 7 p.m. Monday. A loss would end FSU's season and send Auburn to face the winner of the Lubbock, Texas, Super Regional next week.
The Seminoles, who were the designated road team, attacked early by getting two runners on with one out. Designated hitter Quincy Nieporte stroked a single to left field but the chance was spoiled when bungled baserunning led to the inning ending on a 7-5-4-2 double play.
The game was through an inning-and-a-half until the game was stopped for two hours and 25 minutes due to a lightning and rain delay.
Play resumed with Seminoles starting pitcher Cole Sands running into trouble. He loaded the bases and walked in a run with two outs. Sands escaped the inning with a strikeout.
Sands went four and one-third innings and was replaced by Alec Byrd. The senior left-hander went two and two-thirds innings. He struck out a season-high five batters before giving way to closer Drew Carlton. The junior allowed a run in the eighth and closed out a scoreless ninth for his sixth save of the season.
FSU tied it at 1-1 in the top of the third when sophomore left fielder Jackson Lueck drove in Dylan Busby on a RBI single.
TTU took a 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth but FSU quickly responded in the sixth. Freshman first baseman Drew Mendoza hit a game-tying solo home run to left field to lead off the inning.
Senior second baseman Matt Henderson, who was 2 for 2 with two runs, followed with a double down the left field line and later came home when freshman center fielder J.C. Flowers connected on a RBI single to left. Flowers, prior to his go-ahead single, was 0 for 21 coming into the at-bat.
The Seminoles created distance in the eighth. With two on and one out, Steven Wells Jr. hit a RBI single to left for a 4-2 lead. Flowers followed with a sacrifice fly to left for a 5-2 edge.
FSU opened the Tallahassee Regional with a surprising 3-1 loss to TTU on Friday. With its season on the line, Lueck and sophomore pitcher Tyler Holton guided the Seminoles in a 6-1 win over No. 22 Central Florida.
A FSU-TTU rematch was set when the Golden Eagles lost 5-3 to the Tigers on Saturday evening.
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