Freshmen Gooden, Danley pitch FSU Softball into NCAA Regional finals

It was a familiar foe and the same result for FSU Softball in the NCAA Tallahassee Regional semifinal round Saturday night.

The Seminoles beat the UCF Knights on Saturday, 5-1, at JoAnne Graf Field — the same score from the same stage as one year ago. This time around, it was a big second inning in the scorebook for FSU, as the ‘Noles scored all five of their runs in that frame.

Redshirt junior Michaela Edenfield started the spark offensively with a one-out double that was ripped down the first-base line and rolled all the way to the right-field wall. FSU scored the first run of the contest on a sacrifice fly from Amaya Ross, allowing Edenfield to cross home plate.

The remaining four runs all came with two outs.

A wild pitch and throwing error led to two runs for the ‘Noles; Devyn Flaherty scored on the wild pitch, then Jahni Kerr came in to score from second base in the same sequence on a throwing error from the Knights.

UCF turned to a new pitcher at that point, and the next batter, freshman Jaysoni Beachum, walked to put runners at the corners for Kalei Harding. And Harding smoked a ball off the left-field wall to push in two more runs for FSU.

“That was a huge inning for us,” Harding said. “We’ve been trying to preach on big innings, trying to get everything started by get ‘em on, get ‘em over and get ‘em in.

“Obviously, we knew before that UCF was a really good team. So packing on runs was going to be the thing for today.”

The Florida State senior credited the efforts of Edenfield for the surge of scoring in the second.

“Shout out for Michaela to get the inning started on that double down the line — that was huge for us,” Harding said. “Just needed a little bit of a momentum shift. So once she got that started, it was game on for us.”

FSU freshman Mimi Gooden was the winning pitcher in the contest, logging 4 1/3 innings and allowing just three hits and one earned run.

Fellow freshman Ashtyn Danley came on in the fifth inning and led the charge the rest of the way to close the game out in the circle.

“I could cry, it was pretty awesome,” FSU coach Lonni Alameda said of the efforts of her freshmen, who have experienced many highs and lows in their first season of college softball. “I think you get, like, kind of between coach and parent at times, right?

“Like this one (Gooden) has grown up a ton. Ashtyn has grown up a ton. We’ve had a lot of challenging conversations through the year just for these moments. And you want to send these seniors out with an awesome opportunity to get to Super Regionals and maybe an Oklahoma City run.”

While praising the freshmen, Alameda was quick to point out that her veteran players have helped pave the way for that development.

“I think it doesn’t come if this senior class doesn’t make them comfortable for where they’re at,” she said. “So it’s been a really cool growing moment to be in this moment together.”

Gooden, who improved to 5-1 on the season, echoed those sentiments. Even this week, she said, her teammates helped her get in the right mindset to perform on the postseason stage.

“They’re so supportive and they believe in me, so that really calms me down,” Gooden said. “I’m really big on my faith, so just praying and talking to God. I talk to God before every pitch, and that calms me down.”

Saturday’s game was originally scheduled for a 1 p.m. start, but it was pushed back four hours due to inclement weather.

“Really thankful for our grounds crew and facilities and everyone to get the field ready today,” Alameda said. “I know that was challenging with the weather, so really thankful for that side.”

Florida State now will face Auburn in the Regional finals after the Tigers defeated Chattanooga and UCF in elimination games Saturday night. The Seminoles and Tigers are scheduled to play at 4 p.m.

FSU needs just one win to advance to the Super Regional round, while Auburn would need to defeat the Seminoles twice.

Stay connected with Warchant.com for continuing coverage of the Tallahassee Regional.

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