TALLAHASSEE — Florida State’s baseball rally on Saturday fell short while one of its best hitters was standing in the dugout.
Alabama’s bullpen avoided a total collapse, as the Crimson Tide held back the Seminoles 6-5 in a Tallahassee Regional elimination game at Dick Howser Stadium. Top-seeded FSU (43-17) exited the regional after two straight losses for the first time since 1984. Alabama, the No. 2 seed, (35-23) moved on to another elimination game today against the loser of Kennesaw State-Georgia Southern.
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Pinch hitter Gage West ended the game with a fly out to left-center field that stranded pinch runner Peter Miller at third base. The batting slot was previously occupied by cleanup hitter John Nogowski, who was second on the team in RBIs and led off the ninth inning with a single.
However, Nogowski was replaced by pinch runner Nick Graganella after his hit. FSU coach Mike Martin said he made the move to give Nogowski a curtain call in what might have been the junior’s last home game before potentially joining the professional ranks this summer. Nogowski was batting .307 entering Saturday while West, a freshman, was next-to-last on the team at .161.
FSU was largely quiet before Nogowski’s single sparked a five-run rally in the bottom of the ninth. Alabama starter and winner Justin Kamplain departed after Nogowski’s single and reliever Jon Keller promptly hit Jose Brizuela with a pitch and walked Ben DeLuzio to load the bases with no outs. Keller then hit his second batter, John Sansone, to bring in the Seminoles’ first run.
New pitcher Thomas Burrows didn’t fare much better when he walked Justin Gonzalez and Ladson Montgomery to make the score 6-3. Burrows finally recorded the first out of the inning with a strikeout of Brett Knief.
DJ Stewart singled in two runs on the next at-bat, moving Miller to third. Burrows induced fly outs by Casey Smit and West to end the game.
Nogowski’s hit was one of six for the Seminoles, who were handcuffed by winning pitcher Kamplain. The hurler gave up four hits through eight innings and finished with three strikeouts and four walks. Stewart collected two hits with a single in the fourth.
Alabama led 3-0 after five innings behind Mikey White’s solo home run in the third and Austen Smith’s RBI double in the fifth. FSU starter and loser Luke Weaver departed after the fifth and Gage Smith couldn’t stop Alabama.
The Crimson Tide added three runs in the seventh, the first coming in on a Ben Moore single. Wade Wass capped the scoring with a two-run home run, the fourth hit surrendered by Gage Smith, for what became important insurance amid the final rally.
Austen Smith and White each had two of Alabama’s nine hits. White added three runs.