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Florida State rallies past Huskies, 7-4, advances to NCAA Regional finals

On3 imageby: Ira Schoffel06/01/26iraschoffel

They’re not done yet. After getting upset in their first game of the NCAA Tallahassee Regional on Friday, the No. 1 seed Florida State Seminoles staved off elimination twice on Sunday to advance to the championship round on Monday.

First, they knocked off Coastal Carolina, 2-1, in a game that was continued from Saturday due to weather. Then, they rallied from a late deficit to eliminate Northern Illinois in the late game, 7-4.

“To wrap this up tonight in the manner we did — to have these guys stand there and fight — I told you these guys will show up, and they will fight,” Florida State head coach Link Jarrett said. “And sometimes I wish it wasn’t such a dog fight, and maybe at some point we’ll experience more of those — tomorrow would be wonderful — but they will show up and they will battle.”

Florida State now will face the same St. John’s team that put them in the losers’ bracket in the first place. After beating FSU, 6-5, in the opener, the Red Storm throttled Northern Illinois earlier on Sunday, 21-8.

Then Florida State finished the Huskies off.

But not until Northern Illinois took a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning. Florida State tied it in the top of the eighth and then scored three more runs in the top of the 10th. The exclamation point came on a two-run home run by first baseman Ben Barrett.

The Seminoles got a gutsy effort on the mound from three pitchers — Cooper Whited, Chris Knier and Brodie Purcell — each of whom threw exactly 3 1/3 innings. They combined to give up only one earned run on six hits while striking out 15 batters and walking three.

Purcell, who pitched the final stretch, earned the victory to improve to 5-2 on the season. He struck out seven of the 12 batters he faced and only gave up one hit.

“The stadium pulse is unreal,” said Purcell, a Southern Cal transfer who is experiencing his first postseason with the Seminoles. “The fans have your back. The K-Time chant it’s awesome.”

Barrett finished the day 3-for-5 at the plate with two runs scored and two runs batted in. The Seminoles also got two hits apiece from outfielders John Stuetzer and Brody DeLamielleure.

One of the biggest hits of the night came from designated hitter Nathan Cmeyla, who drove in catcher Hunter Carns with an RBI double in the top of the eighth that tied the game at 4-4. Carns drove in center fielder Brayden Dowd with a sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th to give FSU the lead, and Barrett then followed that up with his two-run smash.

Florida State will need to defeat St. John’s twice to advance to the NCAA Super Regional round, while the Storm will need to beat the Seminoles just once.

UPDATE: The game time for Monday has been set for Noon ET. If the Seminoles force a winner-take-all game, it is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.

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