No. 1 Tennessee rallies for four runs in ninth to walk-off Florida State in CWS opener

OMAHA, Neb. — The No. 8 Florida State Seminoles stood toe-to-toe with No. 1 Tennessee for nine innings Friday night in the opening round of the College World Series. But an inconsistent bullpen, which has endured highs and lows all season, could not protect a three-run lead with three outs to go.

The Volunteers scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to record a stunning 12-11 victory and send No. 8 FSU into the losers’ bracket, where the ‘Noles will face Virginia in an elimination game on Sunday afternoon.

Tennessee will face North Carolina in a winners’ bracket game that night.

“It’s tough right now,” Florida State coach Link Jarrett said in his post-game press conference. “That was a tough walk-off and walk in that locker room. Tough. These guys have responded all year, and they’ll respond.”

The opening-night jitters Jarrett talked about all week were readily apparent early in Friday’s game. But after spotting the Vols an early three-run lead, Florida State settled down and took control in the middle frames.

FSU was led offensively by Jaime Ferrer, who went 2-for-5 with 4 RBIs, and Marco Dinges, who went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs. They both also scored two runs apiece.

With Florida State clinging to a 9-7 lead in the seventh, Dinges came through with a two-out, two-run double that pushed the Seminoles’ advantage to 11-7. The Volunteers then scored one run in the eighth inning and pounded out four runs in the ninth to record the walk-off victory.

Junior right-hander Conner Whittaker, who took over for Florida State starter Jamie Arnold in the sixth, pitched three strong innings of relief. But he was pulled with one out in the ninth after giving up a triple and a sacrifice fly to start the frame.

The score was 11-9 at the time, and Whittaker had thrown 71 pitches. Senior left-hander Brennen Oxford then came in and walked the first batter he faced on five pitches. That walk was pivotal because even though Oxford coaxed a pop-out from the next batter for the second out, it allowed the Volunteers to bring back up the top of their lineup.

Leadoff hitter Christian Moore, who had a monster night, doubled to left field to put the tying runs in scoring position. Then after it appeared that first baseman Blake Burke might have swung far enough to be called for a third strike that would have ended the game, the umpires ruled it was a check-swing, and Burke singled up the middle to tie things up at 11-11.

Two batters later, Tennessee cleanup hitter Dylan Dreiling delivered a walk-off single off of reliever Connor Hults.

As crushing as the final frame was, Jarrett pointed out that the Seminoles made a number of mistakes earlier in the game that kept things closer than they needed to be.

“You reflect on the ninth inning, and it’s tough,” Jarrett said. “There’s 27 players in there that are hurting. We need to learn some of the things that happened early. Maybe it shouldn’t have ever gotten to that. But it did, and we have to learn to live with these things.”

It was a back-and-forth game early and late.

Tennessee took a 4-1 lead in the second thanks to some early Florida State miscues. First, catcher Jaxson West dropped the ball while attempting to make a tag at the plate. Then pitcher Jamie Arnold threw the ball into right field after fielding a ground ball. Each error led to a run, as the Volunteers scored two runs in each of the first two innings.

Florida State reclaimed the lead with a six-run third. The Seminoles combined five hits with two Tennessee errors in the frame, with the big hits being a two-run double by Ferrer and an RBI double from Cam Smith.

Ferrer then blasted a two-run homer in the fourth to give Florida State a 9-4 advantage.

The Volunteers then got back in the game with the long ball. Kavares Tears blasted a two-run shot in the bottom of the fifth to cut FSU’s advantage to 9-6, then Christian Moore slammed a solo shot in the bottom of the sixth to make it 9-7.

Moore led Tennessee’s offense by hitting for the cycle. He is just the second player in CWS history to accomplish that feat, and the first since 1956. Moore went 5-for-6 and finished the night with two doubles, a single, triple and home run.

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