FSU Baseball Falls to Alabama, Season Over

That's not the way it was suppose to end. Florida State was far too good of a baseball team to go 0-2 and BBQ in its own regional, right?

Alabama made sure that was far from correct as they defeated Florida State 6-5, behind a fantastic pitching performance from Justin Kamplain.

The lefty went eight strong innings, allowing just five hits and one earned run, walking four and striking out three.

For eight innings the game was eerily similar to last night's loss to Georgia Southern for FSU. The Noles couldn't get anything going against Kamplain. Batter after batter put up weak at-bats with weak contact over and over.

Meanwhile, the Crimson Tide were able to muster three runs off Seminole ace Luke Weaver. Mikey White led off the 3rd inning with a solo blast to left field, his seventh of the season. In the 5th inning, a Jose Brizuela error led to two Alabama runs, that in hindsight were massive.

On the day Weaver lasted five innings, giving up five hits and one earned run while striking out four batters. It's likely the last time Weaver throws in a Seminole uniform in what has been a fantastic career.

Alabama added three runs in the 7th inning off Gage Smith, who also has a great career come to a close. The big blast that inning came from Wade Wass, hitting a towering two-run blast off the scoreboard in left field.

With a 6-0 lead, the Seminole offense in complete shambles, and a dominating pitcher on the mound the game felt beyond over. The Noles had other thoughts.

Florida State plated five runs in the bottom of the 9th do to some patient at-bats and poor pitching by Alabama's bullpen.

A single by John Nogowski, a walk, and two hit-by-pitches plated Florida State's first run of the entire regional. Two more bases loaded walks to Justin Gonzalez and Ladson Montgomery cut the Alabama lead to 6-3. With the bases still loaded and zero outs, Howser was in a frenzy.

Alabama closer Thomas Burrows then got Brett Knief to strike out and Casey Smit to pop out to shallow center. With two outs DJ Stewart plated a pair of runs on a sharp single to center field, moving a runner to third in the process as well.

Florida State was down just 6-5 with runners on the corners and two outs for Nogowski, or so everyone thought at least. In actuality Mike Martin had pinch ran Nick Graganella for Nogowski to start the 9th inning, making FSU's second base hitter unavailable to bat with the season on the line.

Gage West pinch hit for Graganella and would fly out to left-center field thwarting the Seminole comeback, ending the season in very disappointing fashion.

The Seminoles finish the 2014 season with a record of 43-17 while Alabama improves to 35-23 and moves to the second loser's bracket game tomorrow. Dustin and Rays will have content this week on what went wrong for FSU this weekend, leading to a bitterly disappointing end to a once promising season.