FSU baseball: Impact of extra inning win over Central Florida

FSU baseball (11-6, 7-5 ACC) had to go to extra innings to take care of Central Florida (9-11) Wednesday night.

A casual FSU baseball fan will look at their record and likely scoff at needing extra innings to win after how the Noles disposed of Florida and Miami in the last four games.

However, a manager can learn a lot about his team in games like Wednesday night. The Noles jumped out to a 2-0 lead, and UCF responded immediately with two runs.

The Noles had back-to-back homers to seize a 4-2 lead late in the game, and UCF scratched for two more runs to tie it and probably should have gotten more runs in that situation.

FSU continued to battle, especially when UCF took the lead in the top of the 10th. It would have been easy for the team to lie down and accept defeat, but continuing to overcome adversity is an important trait.

It’s easy when a team is blowing other teams out, there’s no pressure involved in holding a six-run lead and your pitchers are dominating.

However, when a team continues to come back and tie the game or take the lead in the late innings, that’s pressure.

Think of it like a boxing match. If you’re fighting someone and you’re outclassing them and there’s no threat, it’s a relatively easy fight. However, if you hit someone with a couple of good punches and they keep coming, that’s a different story.

The players could have had the attitude it was a non-conference game that didn’t mean anything, but their performance showed the mentality they have. A loss against UCF could have turned into more losses against Wake Forest this weekend. The win over UCF continues their momentum, and more importantly, gives them confidence in coming back to win when their backs are against the wall.