6/2/2023 other sports Edit

FSU softball in unfamiliar (but very welcome) territory at Women's CWS

Kaley Mudge hit one of FSU's two home runs in Thursday night's 8-0 win over Oklahoma State (Sarah Phipps/USA Today Sports)

Curt Weiler • TheOsceola

Senior Writer

Lonni Alameda alluded to it at the very start of her postgame press conference just after midnight on Friday.

“This is new territory for us,” the Florida State softball coach began by saying.

The Seminoles have had a lot of success under Alameda at the Women’s College World series. They won the program’s first NCAA title in 2018 and came one win away from winning another in 2021. In four previous trips to OKC under Alameda, FSU had a combined 13-8 record.

And yet Thursday night’s 8-0 run-rule victory over No. 6 seed Oklahoma State was the first time in five trips to the WCWS in Alameda’s tenure that the Seminoles won their opening game.

FSU’s last win in its WCWS opener came 21 years and six trips to OKC ago in 2002 under legendary FSU softball coach JoAnne Graf.

“We broke the curse of losing the first game, so that's pretty exciting for us,” Alameda quipped.

Obviously, losing the first game hasn’t been a problem for the Seminoles their last two times at the WCWS. In 2018, FSU was the No. 6 overall seed and rattled off six straight wins – five against higher-seeded teams – after losing its opening game in Oklahoma City to No. 3 UCLA.

In 2021, No. 10 overall seed FSU won five straight games – including two against No. 3 Alabama and one against No. 1 Oklahoma – to move to the brink of another national title after dropping its WCWS opener vs. No.2 UCLA.

As such, Alameda knows that winning this first game is far from essential in making a deep run.

“Honestly, it's kind of a joke about we've always lost (the first game) here. The reality is I felt like we've always come here and played softball and made adjustments while we've played in this tournament,” Alameda said. “It's another tournament for us. Yes, it's the biggest stage and there's only eight teams playing. If we can keep it that simple and play that simple game of softball right now, we have opportunities to get to the next day. Whether that's the double-elimination life or you're in the winner's bracket, you have to keep it as simple as it's the next day to play softball.”

While that may be true, winning the first game and moving into the winner’s bracket has some inherent advantages. Especially since the NCAA expanded the WCWS schedule from seven days to nine days ahead of the 2022 edition after FSU and Oklahoma State played until 2 a.m. in 2021 due to weather delays and the need to get the game in for the sake of the schedule.

Under the new format, teams that win their first game on Thursday are now off until Saturday. FSU’s next game isn’t scheduled until Saturday at 7 p.m. and it could be even later than that as there’s a decent chance of inclement weather over Friday and Saturday, which could cause more delays.

Beating Oklahoma State on Thursday means the Seminoles won’t have to be back at the stadium until late Saturday afternoon. That means if there are any further delays in the next 24 hours, they won’t affect FSU waiting them out at the stadium as the Seminoles had to Thursday night during the opening game, where there were a pair of weather delays that lasted a combined three hours.

Additionally, FSU is now one win away from the WCWS Semifinals. No. 7 seed Washington beat No. 15 Utah 4-1 Friday afternoon to advance to a game against the Seminoles. If they win again, the Seminoles again get a rest day and will be off until Monday night as one of the final four teams.

In 11 previous WCWS appearances, FSU has never won both of its first two games. Although the Seminoles have proven capable of coming out of the loser’s bracket and advancing multiple times, it’s a much easier path through if a team wins its first two games. Whoever emerges out of the loser’s bracket to make the semifinals would have to beat FSU twice while FSU would need just one win to advance.

For now, though, FSU isn’t focused on that. The team is focused solely on the next thing on the calendar.

“The fact is we get a day off tomorrow, regroup, we're going to have a tough one on Saturday,” Alameda said.