8:04 pm | June 9, 2019 | Go to Source | Author:
Florida State coach Mike Martin, the all-time wins leader in all NCAA sports, will get one more shot at winning his first national championship before he retires.
The Seminoles continued their improbable postseason surge with a 5-4 win over LSU in 12 innings Sunday night to complete a two-game super regional sweep and run their record to 5-0 in the national tournament.
Now, Martin and his team are off to Omaha, Nebraska, for the College World Series. It’s the 23rd trip for the program and 17th for Martin.
“So excited I can’t stand it,” he told his wife, Carol, on the field after the game in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Vanderbilt and Texas Tech won Game 3s in their super regionals to advance. Louisville earned a CWS spot Saturday.
Florida State (41-21) has reached the NCAA Tournament in each of Martin’s 40 seasons, but barely got in this year. An up-and-down regular season and a so-so resume left the Seminoles vulnerable on selection day, and they were awarded one of the last four at-large bids.
But they beat No. 4 national seed Georgia twice while going 3-0 in their regional and then they went into Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, one of the toughest road environments in the nation, and won two close games over the Tigers.
Drew Mendoza delivered the key hit with two outs in the 12th, sending Devin Fontenot’s 2-2 pitch into right field to score Mike Salvatore from second for the walk-off win.
His wife blowing kisses to him from the stands, Martin pumped his right fist and shouted, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” before descending the dugout steps after an on-field celebration. Martin, 75, announced after last season that 2019 would be his final year as coach.
Austin Martin hit two of Vanderbilt’s five home runs in a 13-2 win over Duke the day after the Commodores’ Kumar Rocker threw the first no-hitter in the 20-year super regional era.
Texas Tech’s Kurt Wilson hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning for the fifth and final lead change in an 8-6 win over Oklahoma State.
Mississippi and North Carolina also won and evened their series to force Game 3s on Monday.
No. 1 national seed UCLA and Michigan played a Game 3 late Sunday, and Stanford was at Mississippi State in a Game 2.
No. 2 Vanderbilt (54-11) rebounded from an embarrassing 18-5 loss on its home field in Game 1 on Friday to dominate the Blue Devils. Rocker struck out 19 in his no-hitter Saturday, and the Commodores were up 9-1 in the third inning on their way to punching their ticket to Omaha for the first time since 2015 and fourth since 2011.
No. 8 Texas Tech (44-18) is in the CWS for the second straight year and fourth time since 2014 after prevailing at home in a back-and-forth series with its Big 12 rival. Tech, down 6-4 in the eighth, pulled within a run when first-round draft pick Josh Jung hit his second homer of the game to bring on Ben Leeper. He walked two batters before Wilson launched a high breaking pitch over the right-field wall.
No. 7 Louisville clinched the first CWS berth on Saturday when it finished a two-game sweep of East Carolina.
In other super regionals, Tyler Keenan tripled, hit one of Ole Miss’ four home runs and had four RBIs to lead the Rebels past Arkansas 13-5, and North Carolina’s Austin Bergner and Austin Love combined for a shutout in a 2-0 win over Auburn. Game 3s in those series are Monday.
The eight-team CWS opens Saturday at TD Ameritrade Park.
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