Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

Baseball

Florida State Falls 7-2 to Tennessee in National Semifinals

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Tennessee will play in the College World Series finals for the first time in the modern era after it knocked out Florida State with a 7-2 victory on Wednesday to win its bracket.
 
Zander Sechrist held the Seminoles scoreless for six innings and the Volunteers struck for four early runs to become the first No. 1 national seed since 2009 to advance to the best-of-three finals.
 
The Volunteers (58-12) will play Texas A&M or Florida for the championship beginning Saturday.
 
The Seminoles (49-17) came into the game still smarting from their 12-11 loss to Tennessee in their CWS opener. They were up 11-8 going to the bottom of the ninth inning of that game. The third-base umpire’s call on Blake Burke’s check swing with two strikes and two outs went against FSU, and Dylan Dreiling drove in the winning run in the Vols’ walk-off win.
 
Tennessee left no doubt about the outcome in the rematch while completing a three-game sweep through bracket play.
 
The Vols broke through under coach Tony Vitello after winning a combined one of five games in trips to Omaha in 2021 and 2023. They’ll try to become the first top seed to win the championship since Miami in 1999.
 
FSU coach Link Jarrett started freshman John Abraham instead of ace Jamie Arnold, who pitched Friday and would have been coming off four days’ rest. Abraham (5-2) was making his first start since April 9 and third of the season. He struggled with his control and faced only five batters before getting pulled with one out.
 
Tennessee was up 4-0 when Burke singled in a run in the second and he finished the scoring in the ninth when he hit his 20th home run of the season. That made the Vols the first team in Division I history to have five players with at least 20 homers. They have a nation-leading 178, nine behind the Division I record set by LSU in 1997.
 
Sechrist (5-1) came into the game 3-0 in his previous four starts with an 0.78 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 23 innings. His scoreless streak in the NCAA Tournament ended at 17 1/3 innings when Daniel Cantu and Alex Lodise hit back-to-back homers in the seventh.
 
In a CWS marked by jaw-dropping defensive plays, Tennessee’s Kavares Tears made one equal to teammate Hunter Ensley’s against North Carolina on Sunday. Tears chased down Marco Dinges’ deep drive to right center, catching the ball while crashing into the wall, his sunglasses and hat flying off.
 
Postgame Notes
  • Florida State finishes the season with 49-17 overall record, its most wins since finishing 50-17 in 2012.
  • Florida State dropped to 32-48 all-time at the MCWS. The Seminoles were making their 24th trip to the MCWS, the third-most of any school, and their first visit since 2019. The Seminoles were seeking their first title and remain as the only school with more than 15 MCWS appearances to have not won a title yet.
  • The Seminoles are 206-134 all-time in 60 all-time NCAA Tournament appearances. Their 206 wins are the second-most in NCAA history, trailing only Texas (257 wins, 63 appearances). 
  • The Seminoles ended the season with 49 wins after finishing 23-31 last season. The 26-win improvement is the best year-over-year improvement in the Division I this season and the best in program history. 
  • Link Jarrett is the 16th coach to lead multiple different programs to the MCWS and of those 16, he joins Mike Gillespie as the only man to do it after playing in multiple in MCWS as a student-athlete at Florida State. He is also one of two coaches (Brian O’Connor) this season that has been to the Division I Men’s College World Series as a player and now a coach.
  • Florida State has won multiple games in a single trip to Omaha for the first time since 2012 and just the second time in its past six MCWS appearances. The Seminoles went 2-2 in 2012 and had three 1-2 seasons (2010, 2017 and 2019) and one winless trip to Omaha (2008) in the past 20 years.
  • With two home runs on Wednesday afternoon, Florida State hit 131 home runs this season, which ranks tied for the second-most in program history (146 in 1985; 131 in 1982). The Noles hit a home run in 61 of the 66 games this season. 
  • FSU has now hit a home run in 19 straight games, dating back to a May 11th contest at Pitt. The 19 game HR streak is the second-longest streak in program history, trailing only the 21-game HR streak earlier this season.
  • Additionally, the Seminoles 78 home run improvement from last season is the largest improvement in the country, passing Austin Peay’s 71-HR improvement from a season ago.
  • With only one walk on Wednesday, Florida State had drawn 63 walks in this year’s NCAA Tournament, the most of any team in this year’s field. Additionally, the Seminoles had drawn 23 walks in Omaha. 
  • Florida State’s 29 runs were its most through four games at the MCWS (24th appearance) (Previous high was 28 in 1999). The Seminoles 29 runs scored were also the second-most of any ACC team after four games in the MCWS, trailing only Clemson’s 30 runs in 1996.
  • Florida State’s 87 runs in seven games this NCAA Tournament (9.6 per game) are the second-most runs per game of any team this season in the tournament, trailing only Tennessee’s (9.9 runs per game) Florida State and Tennessee had entered the game as the only other teams averaging at least 10 runs per game in the postseason.
  • Max Williams finished the day 2-for-4 with a singles and a double to extend his on-base streak to 21 straight games and his hit streak to 11 consecutive contests. His two hit day was part of his 19th multi-hit game of the season.
  • Marco Dinges finished Wednesday with a 1-for-4 showing at the plate, extending his on-base streak to 18 straight games.
  • Max Williams and Marco Dinges’ 16 hits in this year’s NCAA Tournament are tied for the second-most by any player in the tournament this season, behind Tennessee’s Blake Burke’s 17 hits.
  • James Tibbs III pushed his active team-leading on-base streak to 24 straight games after blooping a single into center in the bottom of the sixth inning. 
  • Daniel Cantu opened the scoring for the Seminoles in the bottom of the seventh inning, blasting his ninth home run of the season into the right field bullpen.
  • Alex Lodise followed with his ninth home run of the season with a 359-foot solo shot to right. It was the ninth time this season that Florida State has recorded back-to-back home runs in a game.
  • Daniel Cantu and Alex Lodise’s back-to-back home runs were just the fifth time players have hit back-to-back homers at the MCWS since the move to Charles Schwab Field Omaha in 2011 (Florida State’s Jaxson West and Max Williams in 2024, Florida’s Wyatt Langford and Jac Caglianone in 2023, Ole Miss’s TJ McCants, Calvin Harris and Justin Bench in 2022 and Florida State’s Quince Nieporte and Cal Raleigh in 2017). Florida State has been responsible for 3 of the 5 instances of back-to-back home runs in the MCWS since the move to Charles Schwab Field Omaha in 2011.
  • Back in 2017, Florida State's Quincy Nieporte and Cal Raleigh hit the first back-to-back homers in stadium history when the did it in the 9th inning vs. LSU (they actually did it on back-to-back pitches).
  • The crowd of 24,696 was a Session 11 record, surpassing the old mark of 22,344 in 2007.
  • The 2024 MCWS has attracted 269,219 fans after 11 sessions, the most fans after 11 sessions in the last 20 years. Last year’s MCWS set a single-season record with 366,105 fans and was at 268,311 after 11 sessions.
  • The 2023 MCWS was the 17th straight MCWS to attract 300,000 fans or more. Entering 2024, the MCWS has averaged at least 20,000 fans per game each of the previous 27 times its been hosted. Including 2024, the event has attracted 100,000+ fans each of the last 43 MCWS and 22 straight years of 200,000 fans or more.