TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Holding off elimination, No. 4 Florida State (55-9) earned a 4-1 win over No. 13 Oklahoma State (43-15) on Friday night to force a winner-take-all game on Saturday May 25 to decide which school will advance out of the NCAA Tallahassee Super Regional to the 2019 Women’s College World Series.
Across recent ACC and NCAA Tournaments, the Seminoles have won each of their last 13 elimination games in the postseason, including a pair of ACC Championships and the 2018 NCAA National Championship.
“Very proud of our team,” said FSU head coach Lonni Alameda. “This may not have been where we wanted to be, but when you are down after game one, getting that momentum in game two is huge for us. It was a hard-fought game against a great ball club. I was really excited about our fight today, and extremely proud of Meghan King and the tone she set for the team today. Wouldn’t have expected anything less from a competitor like her. Now it is about getting some rest and being able to go into that boxing match we are going to have tomorrow.”
Much like on Thursday, Friday’s game was a pitcher’s duel between FSU’s Meghan King and OSU’s Samantha Show, as neither team was able to produce a baserunner until FSU’s Cassidy Davis was hit by the first pitch of her plate appearance to start the top of the third inning. Zoe Casas followed with an infield single and a walk to Cali Harrod loaded the bases with one out.
Carsyn Gordon drew a walk to put the Noles on the scoreboard, Sydney Sherrill added another with a sacrifice fly and Elizabeth Mason made it 4-0 Florida State with a two-RBI single up the middle. The run scored by Harrod was her 73rd of 2019, setting the FSU single-season record, passing the previous mark of 72 by Shamalene Wilson in 1996.
The Cowgirls scored an unearned run in the bottom of the third inning to make it a 4-1 game. After back-to-back singles to open the inning, King retired the next batter with a strikeout. A ground ball to shortstop was flipped to second for out number two, but the throw to first was wide of the bag, allowing a run to score.
King closed out the game strong in the circle as the redshirt senior allowed just two baserunners on a pair of singles over the final 4.2 with no one getting beyond first base and posting five strikeouts. She improved to 30-6 on the season, striking out nine in the complete-game victory. King is all alone in second place on the FSU all-time wins list with 108, trailing only Lacey Waldrop, who tallied 109 victories from 2012-15.
The Seminoles and Cowgirls will play a winner-take-all series finale on Saturday, May 25 at 12:00 p.m., which will be air nationally on ESPN. Links for the broadcast, tickets and live stats will be available on the softball schedule page of Seminoles.com.
Fans can listen to the FSU softball coaching staff, head coach Lonni Alameda and assistant coaches Travis Wilson and Craig Snider, on their weekly podcast: Coaches and Coffee – The FSU Softball Podcast. Each week, the coaches talk about the current state of the Seminole softball team, chat about NCAA softball from around the country, and have a lot of fun along the way. The podcast can be found on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or directly at our website – fsusoftballpodcast.wordpress.com.
Follow Florida State softball on Twitter (@FSU_Softball) and Instagram (fsusoftball), and like our Facebook page (Facebook.com/FSUsoftball) to keep up to date with everything about Seminole softball.
