FSU Baseball squanders late lead, drops Game 1 of Tallahassee Regional to St. John's

If the Florida State baseball team is going to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals for a third straight year, it’s going to have to get real hot real quick.

The No. 1 seed Seminoles blew a 5-2 lead to No. 4 seed St. John’s on Friday evening and wound up falling to the Big East champions, 6-5, in Game 1 of the Tallahassee Regional at Dick Howser Stadium.

“That’s a good team on the other side,” Florida State head coach Link Jarrett said. “This is a good team. It was a dogfight. It was an unbelievable game. We had chances early to separate a little bit. … We eventually separated a little bit, but clearly very sound approach with their hitters. They kept at it. And they delivered the result.”

FSU reliever Chris Knier gave up a leadoff homer in the eighth to Dylan Fitzsimmons, who was only in the game because St. John’s starting left-fielder Lewis Rodridguez severely injured his ankle on a play in the second inning.

After the Fitzsimmons bomb, Knier then walked the next batter on a 3-2 pitch and then allowed a sharp single to center. John Abraham, who hadn’t pitched in three weeks but has been the Seminoles’ best reliever all year (and one of the best in the country), came on in relief of Knier.

A wild pitch scored one run. A passed ball scored another. Abraham was able to get out of a bases-loaded jam, despite missing out on a strikeout because of a catcher’s interference call on Hunter Carns, but the visitors had still tied the game at 5-5.

The Red Storm then took the lead in the top of the ninth when Fitzsimmons — who else? — lined a single to center to start the inning. Stole second. And then scored on a single to center.

Knier and Abraham have been, by far, the best relievers on the team this year for Florida State. On Friday, the right-handed duo was charged with four runs (three earned) in 3 2/3 innings.

Meanwhile, the FSU offense scored zero runs on the St. John’s bullpen despite having a big opportunity in the bottom of the ninth. Brayden Dowd led off with a single, and then Carns had a one-out single to left to put runners on first and second with one out. But Eli Putnam grounded into a double play to end the game and send the Seminoles into an elimination game at 2 p.m. on Saturday against Coastal Carolina, which dropped the late game to Northern Illinois, 12-10.

Florida State scored its five runs on the strength of two solo homers — one in the first from leadoff hitter John Stuetzer and a solo shot by Gabe Fraser in the second — and then two Dowd two-out RBI hits. Dowd’s double to left in the bottom of the sixth was almost a two-run homer, but St. John’s left fielder Cristian Bernardini brought the ball back from over the fence with his glove but couldn’t hold onto the ball.

Still. It wound up saving a run.

Dowd led the Seminoles with three hits and Fraser, Cal Fisher and Carter McCulley each had two for the Seminoles, who got five innings from starter Bryson Moore, who allowed just two runs while striking out six.

And now for Florida State to get back to the Supers, it will be an uphill climb. Starting on Saturday afternoon. The Seminoles still have ace Wes Mendes for the elimination game, and then Trey Beard for the game after if they win.

So, it’s not like all is lost.

But Jarrett knows it’s not going to be easy.

“The reality is we absolutely are (in this position), there’s no way around it,” he said. “But it does allow you to enter the building tomorrow knowing you have a very capable arm. You have enough in the bullpen to support that. We have to defend. And like we’ve talked about all year, there have to be moments offensively where we can separate a little bit.”

Dowd has a unique perspective of the challenge facing the Seminoles. Last year, while at USC, he and his Trojans were in the Corvalis, Ore., Regional. They saw host Oregon State lose the first game of the regional and then storm all the way back, winning four straight, to advance to the Supers and then eventually knock off Florida State to advance to the College World Series.

“I’m very well aware that it’s capable of being done,” Dowd said. “What I saw in that team last year, that Oregon State team, is how well they played, how they played for each other, how their fans rallied behind them, it was incredible. And I would say we have a better group here and better fans here … so, now it’s lose or go home. I think that’s when you see the character of your team.”

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