Seminoles shut down Bulldogs to reach region final
The top-seeded Florida State softball team (53-6-1) showed its strength in Saturday’s victory over No. 2 seed Georgia, using four home runs to come away with a 7-1 win over the Bulldogs (34-22) in the winner’s bracket game of the NCAA Tournament Tallahassee Regional.
Of FSU’s four long balls, two came from an unexpected source: backup catcher Anna Shelnutt.
Shelnutt, a .273 hitter on just 33 at-bats over the regular season, has exploded in the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament. She followed up a 2-for-3 showing with a triple, a double and an RBI on Friday with a twohomer performance on Saturday. She opened the scoring with a two-run shot in the second inning and added a solo home run in the sixth.
In two games this weekend, Shelnutt has a pair of home runs and four RBI after she had three homers and 13 RBI over 37 regular-season games.
“I knew with my training and my teammates and my coaches, I was going to come out and make an impact for us,” Shelnutt said after Saturday’s win. “I felt in my heart that I had worked hard to give it to my team.”
The other FSU homers came from third baseman Jessie Warren, who belted her team-high 22nd of the year, and right fielder Carsyn Gordon, whose three-run shot in the sixth inning put the game out of reach.
FSU starting pitcher Meghan King settled in nicely on Saturday after escaping a bases-loaded jam in the second inning, racking up eight strikeouts over 6.2 innings of work. King allowed one unearned run, which came in the seventh and final inning, on seven hits.
“Over the years here at Florida State, they have always sold out for best pitch and they have always had the upmost trust in me,” King said. “Seeing it play out into action has been awesome.”
Across both of the Seminoles’ games this weekend, their pitching has been dominant. FSU has allowed one unearned run on eight hits over 14 innings in the Tallahassee Regional, racking up 17 strikeouts and issuing just one walk.
With the win, the Seminoles advance to face Georgia again in the Tallahassee Regional Final.
The contest will be played today at noon, with a second game scheduled for 2:30 p.m. should FSU lose the first matchup. The No. 1 national seed Florida Gators continued to dominate in NCAA Regional play, earning a 2-0 win over No. 2 seed Oklahoma State. Kelly Barnhill struck out 15 in the one-hit shutout for UF.
The Gators have now shut out their past 12 regional opponents dating back to 2013 when South Florida scored a single unearned run.
During the span of the 12 regional shutouts, Florida has outscored its opponents 80-0.
“Overall, I’m happy with the way our team came out today,” UF coach Tim Walton said. “I thought we had the right energy, I thought we had the right preparation.
“. . . Overall, I thought we did enough to win. I think in the end we can all sit up here and be critical of how many hits we had or how many runs we scored, but in postseason softball the only thing that matters is the W, and getting the W with the two out hit and the clutch hit was pretty impressive.”
FIU eliminated Florida A&M and then fell 5-0 to Oklahoma State, as the Panthers’ season came to an end.
UF (52-6) will face Oklahoma State at noon today for the regional title. If the Gators lose, the teams will play again at 2:30 p.m.