Knights fall to Tigers
TALLAHASSEE — Auburn boasts two of the top starting pitchers in the country, and on Friday Keegan Thompson showcased just how good he is against UCF.
Thompson threw eight innings, striking out a season-high nine batters while allowing two runs and four hits, as No. 3 Auburn defeated No. 2 UCF 7-4 to open the Tallahassee Regional at Dick Howser Stadium.
The Knights (40-21) drop to the losers bracket of the regional and will play an elimination game against host Florida State, which suffered a shocking loss to Tennessee Tech Friday. The Knights and Seminoles will face off at noon today.
UCF has faced strong starting pitching this season, but Thompson was on another tier.
“Keegan was probably the best arm we’ve seen all year,” UCF coach Greg Lovelady said. “Let that guy eight innings against you, and you can’t spot guys runs, and we did that today and it cost us.”
Mistakes compounded UCF’s troubles against Thompson.
Auburn (36-24) opened the scoring after Jay Estes laced a RBI double down the left-field line, scoring Blake Logan, who reached on a walk. One batter later, Knights first baseman Rylan Thomas failed to squeeze the ball in his glove, allowing Estes to score from second.
He made up for his mistake in the bottom half of the inning, blasting an opposite field solo home run, getting the Knights within one run.
“Any time you score a run, you get a little momentum shifted back over to your side,” Thomas said. “And I think it was a little bit of a spark for something. [Thompson] did a really good job pitching today, so it’s tough to get anything going against a guy like that.”
Thompson (7-4) settled into a groove after Thomas’ home run and retired 12 batters in a row during one stretch.
After primarily working off his fastball the first time through the order, Thompson started mixing his pitches in the middle innings. He kept hitters off balance and neutralized the Knights’ speed on the base paths. He threw 119 pitches, 79 for strikes, and walked only one hitter.
It wasn’t until Eli Putnam hit a two-out double in the sixth inning that the Knights had a runner reach base.
By then, the Tigers doubled their advantage, and Thompson didn’t allow another runner to reach base until the eighth inning. He struck out the side in the seventh inning. UCF mustered only six hits.
The Florida State baseball team’s hot streak entering the NCAA Tournament came to a halt in the opening game of the Tallahassee Regional.
The Seminoles (39-21) were stifled offensively by No. 4 seed Tennessee Tech (41-19) and suffered a stunning 3-1 loss to the Golden Eagles on Friday.
FSU and Tennessee Tech, two talented offenses, were shut down early, managing no runs and a combined three hits over the opening five innings.
The Seminoles broke through first on an RBI single from Quincy Nieporte in the sixth inning but wasted multiple prime opportunities to pad their lead
FSU pitcher Drew Parrish did everything in his power to keep the Seminoles in the game. The true freshman racked up a career high 12 strikeouts over 71⁄3 innings of two-hit work.
However, after allowing a runner to reach second with one out in the eighth inning, FSU head coach Mike Martin elected to pull Parrish and bring in Drew Carlton out of the bullpen.
Carlton surrendered a double off the wall in right to the first batter he faced, tying the game at one.
The next inning, Carlton gave up a single and a double to lead off the inning. He gave way to senior reliever Alec Byrd, who surrendered a two-run double to Tennessee Tech designated hitter Ryan Flick, which proved to be the difference.
The loss is just FSU’s fourth in its last 29 games in the regional round and will force the Seminoles to rattle off four straight wins to advance to a super regional.