3 up, 3 down: Florida State baseball falls in NCAA Tournament opener to Tennessee Tech

A red hot Florida State baseball team saw its momentum come to a screeching halt when it opened up its NCAA Regional with a loss to No. 4 seed Tennessee Tech 3-1.

Three up:

• Drew Parrish — wow. The southpaw threw a game to remember in his first ever NCAA Tournament start, going 7 ¹⁄₃ innings and striking out a career high 12. Parrish allowed one walk and two hits. He exited the game with one out in the eighth and a runner on second which came around to score, charging Parrish with his only earned run of the game. It was exactly what FSU needed from Parrish.
• Jackson Lueck was the only bright spot for FSU offensively, going 1-3 with a walk. He was the only Seminole to reach base more than once on Friday.
• Defensively, FSU didn’t commit an error despite having a poor cutoff in an attempt to catch the first TTU run at home. J.C. Flowers made up for that run in the ninth, throwing a perfect strike from the outfield to nail a Tennessee Tech runner at the plate.

Three down:

• Florida State had major struggles at the plate against the weakest seed in the Tallahassee Regional. FSU as a team hit 4-28. (.142). No one had a multi-hit game or even an extra-base hit.
• The bullpen imploded in its 1 ²⁄₃ innings pitched. Drew Carlton allowed an RBI single to the first batter he faced in the eighth allowed TTU to tie the game up. He then opened up the ninth allowed a single and double, forcing coach Mike Martin to bring in Alec Byrd with runners on second and third with no outs. Byrd proceeded to give up a 2 RBI double, shifting the lead for the first time all night. Chase Haney came in with one out, allowing one hit with a runner on second, however as mentioned earlier, JC Flowers was able to throw out the potential scorer at home.
• With the opening loss, FSU now needs to go 4-0 over its next four games for its season to continue. The ‘Noles also remain one win away from 40, a milestone the team has reached each season for the past 39 years.

Florida State will now play an elimination game against UCF on Saturday at 12PM.