Jamie Arnold, Cam Smith power FSU past UCF and into Regional finals

The old Howser Magic was back on Saturday night for the Florida State baseball team.

And Jamie Arnold took full advantage.

The Seminoles’ star left-hander was magnificent for seven innings, Brennen Oxford was exceptional in relief, and FSU is now one win away from a spot in the Super Regionals after a 5-2 win over Central Florida before a loud and raucous Dick Howser Stadium on Saturday night.

Florida State (44-15) will play either UCF or Stetson on Sunday at 6 p.m. for a spot in the Supers. Whoever wins the elimination game would have to beat the Seminoles two times in a row to advance.

“You don’t see stuff like that often at any level,” Florida State head coach Link Jarrett said of Arnold’s pitching dominance.

It was as electric an atmosphere as Howser has had all season — in many seasons actually — early on for the game against the Knights on Saturday. Most of that was because of Arnold’s performance, but the offense did enough early on to give the All-ACC first-teamer breathing room.

The Seminoles scored two in the third inning and three more in the fourth to take a 5-0 lead.

The first two runs on the board came courtesy of RBI infield singles from Marco Dinges and Daniel Cantu.

Then, in the fourth, Cam Smith launched a two-run homer over the screen in right field to blow the roof off the place and give the Seminoles a 4-0 lead. Smith, who was 0-for-5 in the Seminoles’ regional-opening win against Stetson, bounced back in a big way on Saturday night with three hits and a walk in front of an announced crowd of 5,246.

Florida State tacked on one more run in the inning on a Jaime Ferrer RBI double to right center.

It was the 11th hit through the first four frames for the Seminoles, and it seemed like they might be cruising to a comfortable win over the Knights. Not quite.

The UCF bullpen allowed just two hits and zero runs over the next five innings, completely silencing the Seminoles’ potent offensive attack.

But Arnold — and then Oxford — were too good on the mound for it to matter.

Arnold struck out 12 in seven innings of work. It was the most Ks in a postseason game by an FSU pitcher since 2017, and it an included an immaculate second inning — he struck out three UCF batters on nine pitches.

Arnold then struck out the next two in the next inning on six pitches, meaning he threw 15 pitches total to strike out five batters in a row. In an NCAA Tournament game.

It was a dominant effort.

“If he’s not the best pitcher in college baseball, I don’t know who is,” said UCF head coach Rich Wallace, who was on the FSU staff a season ago when Arnold was a freshman.

But it did get dicey in the seventh. Arnold started it with a four-pitch leadoff walk, and then a ground ball found a hole. When he hit a UCF hitter with a 1-2 pitch, the Knights had the bases loaded and nobody out. And the game was very much in doubt.

Arnold then induced a 4-6-3 double play on a 3-1 pitch and then got another groundout to end the inning with the Knights scoring just the one run.

SIGN UP: Join Warchant’s FSU Community for $1 today

Oxford then came in and pitched a perfect eighth with two strikeouts and then made one of the biggest plays of the game in the bottom of the ninth (UCF was the home team). After allowing a check-swing infield single, he picked off the runner at first base with a deceptive move that caught the runner flat-footed..

A strikeout, a walk and then another strikeout ended the game and sent the Seminoles into the championship game on Sunday night.

With Carson Dorsey’s outing on Friday, Florida State has managed to win two games in the regional by throwing a grand total of three pitchers. All hands will no doubt be on deck on Sunday night as the Seminoles try to reach a Super Regional for the first time since 2019.

Jarrett said he is leaning toward giving the start to junior Conner Whittaker, but a final decision had not been made Saturday night.

*Talk about this story with other die-hard Florida State baseball fans in the FSU Baseball Forum*