FSU Baseball finds backs against the wall after College World Series loss

FSU baseball could hardly get a hit off of the opposing pitcher that Michigan threw on the mound and now sits one loss away from their season ending.

After falling behind in the first inning of their second game in Omaha as part of the College World Series, the FSU baseball team thought they would have a chance to quickly get back into the game when Mike Salvatore led off the bottom of the first inning with a double and gave the Seminoles some early life in their first at bats.

By the time the game was over, the Noles would finish with just three hits total and suffered their first loss in the 2019 NCAA tournament – and now, head coach Mike Martin sits one loss away from seeing his 40th and final season come to an end after a 2-0 defeat at the hands of the Michigan Wolverines.

After winning their opener in the CWS for the first time since the 1999 edition in Omaha – and looking for their first 2-0 start in the final round of the tournament since the 1989 edition of the fun and excitement – the FSU baseball team saw12 straight batters get retired after Salvatore’s double before JC Flowers was hit by a pitch to lead off the fifth inning.

Florida State Seminoles

At the same point, Seminoles starting pitcher CJ Van Eyk didn’t make it out of the top half of the inning after giving up a second run – with the first coming on a solo homer to the second batter of the game – as the Noles lost for the first time since their opener of the ACC tournament nearly one calendar month ago.

So, where do the Seminoles go from here? Well, the road is pretty simple the rest of the week – one more loss will send FSU baseball back to Tallahassee and end the outstanding career of No. 11 the way each trip before has ended in Omaha: with a loss and another trip that did not end with a national title for the Noles.

For Martin and the Seminoles, it’s off to the losers bracket for the rest of the week as they will now take on Texas Tech on Wednesday night. The Red Raiders came back to defeat the No. 5 national seed Arkansas – the same team FSU baseball defeated in the opening day of the tournament – to stay alive in Omaha.

If the Seminoles can get a victory on Wednesday, it will stay in Omaha for at least one more day as they would face off with Michigan again on Friday and would need two wins over the Wolverines just to make it to the championship series that would start next Monday.

It has been done before for the FSU baseball team – in 1999, the Seminoles dropped their second game before winning three straight to make it to a one game title game that season.

But for right now, Martin and the Seminoles realize the goal is far simpler: keep winning or head back to Tallahassee once again as the bridesmaids of college baseball.