College Spring Sports Update

Photo credit: Jeff Romance

Florida State Seminoles

Baseball

Florida State baseball starts the postseason today at 3 PM versus Wake Forest at the ACC Tournament in Durham. The game will be broadcasted on RSN and ACC Network Extra.

With the other teams on the bubble struggling so much last weekend I feel that it is safe to say that the Seminoles will be in the NCAA tournament again. A win today should make everyone feel comfortable about this squad’s chances. Over this past weekend the Seminoles were embarrassed by Louisville in games one and three but were able to blowout the Cardinals on Saturday 14-3.

Florida State is guaranteed another game in the ACC tournament and will play Friday night versus NC State. The ‘Noles will need to win both games in order to reach the semifinals Saturday.

Third baseman Drew Mendoza and closer JC Flowers were named to the All-ACC first-team this week. Outfielder Robby Martin was named to the all freshman team as well.

Golf

Florida State alum Brooks Koepka won the 101st PGA Championship at Bethpage Black shooting 8 under par. This is his fourth major title of his career, all within his last eight starts. He has now won the last two PGA championships and last two U.S. Opens becoming the first player in history to be back-to-back champion of two separate majors simultaneously.

He had a 7 stroke lead going into the final round but on the back nine after four consecutive bogeys his lead was cut to one. Dustin Johnson then bogeyed and Koekpa made a par to slow down the momentum. He was able to hold off his friend Johnson to pull out the two-stroke victory. With the victory Koepka is now the no. 1 golfer in the world.

Softball

The Seminoles started off postseason play by knocking off Bethune-Cookman 8-0 on Friday night. Makinzy Herzog threw a complete-game shutout for the Seminoles. The winning ways continued on Saturday as Florida State blasted South Florida 12-1. In the fifth inning the Seminoles became the first second team to hit four home runs in a row and first time in the postseason to complete such a feat. It started with when freshman Makinzy Herzog got one over the wall in center, that was followed up with a moonshot Cali Harrod into the street, Carsyn Gordon was next with an opposite field home run to right and last but not least Sydney Sherrill went to centerfield to complete the home run barrage.

The regional finale provided a tough test for the red-hot ‘Noles. After jumping out to a 5-1 going into the 3rd South Carolina started digging into the lead. After giving up only one run in her last 47 innings in the tournament Meghan King was taken out after giviing up 3 runs. Kathryn Sandercock was unable to slow the Gamecocks down then eventually gave up the lead in the 4th. After an uneventful 5th the host team took the lead back on a two-out single by Herzog. King was able to get her groove back and close out the game and the regional for the no. 4 seeded Seminoles.

The Tallahassee super regional will start on Thursday at 7 PM on ESPN versus Oklahoma State. It is a three game series to determine who goes to the World Series in Oklahoma City. Game 2 will be Friday at 3 and game 3 will be Saturday at noon if necessary.

Football

This past weekend Willie Taggart offered tight end, Sage Ennis from Lincoln High School a scholarship. Florida High’s Ahmari Harvey has been offered by the Seminoles and is has also been offered by Alabama and Clemson in the past week.

Florida A&M baseball

Congratulations to the Florida A&M baseball team as they won the MEAC tournament at Jackie Robinson Stadium in Daytona Beach. The Rattlers had to win 4 games in a row out of the losers bracket to claim the title. On Friday they defeated Delaware State North Carolina A&T in elimination games. On Saturday FAMU had to beat top-seeded Norfolk State twice in order to make the NCAA tournament.

The Rattlers and the Seminoles will find out their destinations for the NCAA tournament Monday at 12:30 PM on ESPNU.