End of the road: 'Noles eliminated from College World Series by LSU, 7-4
There was no squandering of a lead this time.
Four days after rallying for a one-run victory against Florida State, the LSU baseball team stormed out to a five-run lead in the second inning of Wednesday's College World Series elimination game and held on for a 7-4 victory.
LSU advances to face Oregon State on Friday, while the Seminoles (46-23) see their season come to an end.
After leading for most of its first CWS game against LSU and coming up short, Florida State fell into an early hole Wednesday as starting pitcher Cole Sands (6-4) failed to make it out of the second inning. LSU senior left-hander Jared Poche', meanwhile, was dominant through the first eight innings, allowing just two runs on five hits.
Poche' improved to 12-3 on the year despite falling short in his effort for a complete game.
"Oh, Jared was just rough on us," FSU coach Mike Martin said. "He pitched a beautiful ball game. And we did everything we could to get him out of the ball game, and he kept performing. And you tip your hat to him. He's a very good competitor."
Sophomore right-hander Andrew Karp did an excellent job of keeping the Tigers in check during the middle innings, and FSU was able to cut the lead to 5-2 on a solo home run by freshman Drew Mendoza and a sacrifice fly by senior Quincy Nieporte.
Karp allowed just three hits in 5 2/3 innings, while recording seven strikeouts.
"The mindset is to keep throwing up as many zeros as you can and let the guys chip away and do their work, which they did," Karp said. "Unfortunately it wasn't enough tonight."
After LSU extended its advantage to 7-2 in the top of the ninth, FSU rallied for two more runs in the bottom half.
Nieporte blasted a solo home run in his final at-bat as a Seminole, and sophomore Cal Raleigh followed that up with another solo home run. But LSU closer Zack Hess then shut the door to record the save.
FSU reached Wednesday's game by knocking off Cal State Fullerton, 6-4, in an earlier elimination game on Monday.
The loss ended an up-and-down season that saw the Seminoles ranked No. 1 early in the year before stumbling to a 21-16 record in mid-April.
Martin's club turned things around in the home stretch, pulling off a surprising championship run in the ACC Tournament, then winning NCAA Regional and Super Regional tournaments to advance to the College World Series.
"Obviously we had our struggles the beginning of the year," Nieporte said. "We came out with unbelievable respect and rankings and we struggled early. And halfway through the year, I think the team really had to look at themselves in the mirror and turn things around. ... A lot of people counted us out halfway through the year, and we proved a lot of people wrong and showed why we're Florida State and we kept the tradition going."
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