How they got here: As the #6 national seed in the NCAA tournament, Florida State was another team that had to come from behind after losing the first game of the Super regional round. After dropping a 6-5 decision to the Tigers in the weekend’s inaugural matchup, the Seminoles rallied for an 8-5 win in eleven innings in game two and emerged victorious by a 3-1 advantage to take home the Super Regional championship and WCWS berth.
The Noles began their regular season with four run-rule victories in their first six games. A few early losses came in, including to Michigan; McNeese State; South Alabama; and Hofstra, but the Noles split two-game series’ with Alabama and Oregon to end the non-conference slate in solid fashion. Later in the year, Lonni Alameda’s club swept a doubleheader with Louisiana-Lafayette and split a home-and-home series with the rival Florida Gators.
In ACC play, the Noles swept through the first ten conference games before seeing their record-setting ACC winning streak come to an end in a 1-0 loss to Pittsburgh. The Noles lost twice more in conference play, something that previously had not happened since the 2016 season. Despite the trio of losses, the Noles dominated conference competition, recording six run-rule victories and nine shutout wins over ACC opponents.
After sweeping through the conference tournament, including a come-from-behind victory over Pittsburgh in the championship game, the Noles hosted the nation’s toughest regional, but emerged unscathed, shutting out Jacksonville State twice and beating Auburn in eight innings to move on to the Super Regional round.
Awards and accolades: The Seminoles swept through the ACC’s regular-season awards, as Jessie Warren, Kylee Hanson, and Sydney Sherrill earned the conference’s Player, Pitcher, and Freshman of the Year awards, respectively. The trio, along with Zoe Casas and Meghan King, were named to the all-conference first team, while Carsyn Gordon earned all-conference second-team honors.
Team strengths: With the addition of Kylee Hanson, Florida State didn’t seem to miss a beat and might have gotten even better after the departure of Jessica Burroughs after 2017. Hanson sports an ERA of 1.05, while Meghan King – with just about thirty fewer innings – boasts a 1.37 mark. The duo makes for a devastating 1-2 punch in the circle, something that the LSU Tigers learned first-hand on Saturday. Hanson made the transition flawlessly from Conference USA to the ACC and the Power Five and now has helped her team back to Oklahoma City… FSU has a propensity to come through in the clutch no matter who is called upon in the situation. Carsyn Gordon has filled that role twice in the postseason and is a high-quality, low-profile player in the heart of the Noles’ batting order.
Team weaknesses: Playing in the ACC, the Seminoles have long-dominated the conference, both in win-loss record and overall numbers. They stand head and shoulders above their conference competition, which, without taking away from the talent on the FSU roster, can lead to a slightly-misleading win-loss record. The Noles have not had much of an opportunity to play the top teams, as they did not participate in many of the early-season RPI-heavy tournaments in the west. The club went 13-7 in the regular season against teams that made the NCAA tournament.
Players to Watch:
Meghan King — King frequently acquiesces the headlines to a higher-profile pitcher on the staff – first Jessica Burroughs, now Hanson – while quietly being nearly as dominant in her own right. She owns seventy-four career victories in just three years in the circle for the Noles, as well as a 1.72 career ERA. Her 2018 includes shutout victories over Texas State and Hofstra, as well as wins over Alabama, Minnesota, and Louisiana-Lafayette. A 1-2 pitching punch always proves handy in the World Series, so expect to see King at some point, and if her 11-inning, 12-strikeout performance against LSU in game 2 of the Super Regionals is any indication, she can be relied on to turn in a career performance in the right situation.
Carsyn Gordon — Look up “clutch” in Webster’s dictionary, and there’s a good chance it would include a photo of Gordon. The junior first baseman has hit .324 on the year with a .615 slugging percentage and 26 extra base hits, but has positively thrived in the postseason. It was her eighth-inning, inside-the-park walk-off home run that gave her team the victory over Auburn in the winner’s bracket game of the regional round and she came up clutch once again in the Super Regional, as her solo home run – this one over the wall the usual way – proved to be the game-winning run in her team’s eventual 8-5 victory.
X-Factor: Jessica Warren — One of the best sluggers in recent memory, Warren’s hot bat will play a major role in Oklahoma City for the ‘Noles.
