Florida State baseball is back in the College World Series final four for the first time in 12 years.
The No. 8 Seminoles (49-16) face a rematch with No. 1 Tennessee (57-12) in the semifinals, five days after the two schools met in the opening game of the World Series, with the Volunteers coming back from down 11-8 in the ninth inning to win 12-11.
Because of the loss, FSU must beat Tennesee twice to advance to the National Championship series this weekend. The Seminoles are coming off wins over Virginia (46-17) and No. 4 North Carolina (48-16), scoring a combined 16 runs and surviving elimination in both games.
Seminoles head coach Link Jarrett knows the difficulty of beating Tennessee, and after the controversial loss to the Volunteers in the opener, he said his team is ready to go.
“So excited. I recognize the difficulty of beating that team,” Jarrett said. “It takes everything you’ve got. You have to finish. You have to defend. You have to execute pitches. And you have to be versatile and compete offensively to figure out a way to do it.”
“They’re really good. There’s no wiggle room in the lineup. They have a variety of arms. They’re talented. They’ve been here. They played in this stadium a lot.”
The first pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. at Charles Schwab Field Omaha.
Tennessee followed its win over the Seminoles with a 6-1 victory over North Carolina, sending the Tar Heels to the losers bracket where the team eventually lost to FSU 9-5 on Tuesday.
Zander Sechrist (4-1) will be on the bump for the Volunteers, and the senior has been on a strong run in the postseason for Tennessee, striking out 14 in his last three playoff starts, with his team 3-0 in those games.
On the season Sechrist holds a 3.26 ERA, allowing 65 hits and 28 runs.
Jarrett would not announce a starter after the victory against North Carolina, saying the pitching staff would be ready for the game.
“So they’re ready. We’ll figure out the pitching. If anybody wants to ask me who is starting just save it because I don’t know. We’ll figure it out,” Jarrett said.
