FSU Baseball storms into NCAA Regional finals with 10-3 win over Mississippi State
The postseason is the time when stars need to be stars, and a trio of FSU baseball stars definitely delivered on Saturday night.
Junior ace Jamie Arnold struck out a season-high 13 batters, freshman slugger Myles Bailey hit a fourth-inning grand slam and second baseman Drew Faurot blasted a pair of homers to lift the Seminoles to a 10-3 victory over Mississippi State.
With the win, FSU advances to the championship round of the NCAA Tallahassee Regional on Sunday.
Mississippi State will take on Northeastern in an elimination game on Sunday at noon. The winner of that contest will face FSU in the finals later that day.
The Seminoles (40-14) need just one more win to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals, while their opponents will have to beat them twice.
Arnold, who hadn’t been his usual dominant self in the month of May, delivered a tremendous effort against the Bulldogs. The left-handed ace allowed five hits and three runs in 7.0 innings; he struck out 13 and walked just two.
Though FSU had gone 3-1 when he started his first four games in May, Arnold didn’t pitch more than six innings in any of those starts. In the last two, he went only five.
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But the hard-throwing lefty overpowered Mississippi State for most of Saturday’s game. And Tallahassee natives Bailey and Faurot made sure he didn’t need to be perfect.
With FSU leading 3-1 in the fourth, Bailey came to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded and blasted an 0-1 pitch over the fence in left field to make it 7-1. It was Bailey’s fifth straight game with a home run and his sixth homer during that stretch.
The Seminoles opened the scoring in the second inning when another Tallahassee product, second baseman Drew Faurot, delivered a two-run homer of his own. Faurot smashed another home run to give FSU some insurance in the top of the ninth.
Senior right-hander Joe Charles pitched the final two scoreless innings to wrap things up.
Barring any lengthy delays in the early game Sunday, FSU will take the field again in the finals at 6 p.m. Normal Sunday starter Wes Mendes (6-2, 4.93 ERA) will likely be the starting pitcher for the ‘Noles.
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