OMAHA, Neb. – The offense rolled again for the Seminoles.
Jaxson West and Max Williams had back-to-back homers in the ninth and combined for seven hits and four RBI as No. 8 Florida State eliminated fourth-seeded North Carolina 9-5 on Tuesday afternoon in Game 9 of the 2024 College World Series.
“Great team across the field,” FSU head coach Link Jarrett said. “Did a great job this year in our league. Won the league, and they’re a phenomenal team. So the quality of that team explains how well these guys executed today to win that game on this stage.”
The Seminoles (49-16) will face top-seeded Tennessee on Wednesday, June 19, at 2 p.m. CT. FSU will have to beat the Volunteers twice to advance to the CWS Championship Series. The Tar Heels ended their season at 48-16.
West went 4 for 5 out of the 9-hole with two RBI. Leadoff hitter Williams had three hits, one walk and knocked in two.
“It feels amazing,” West said, “being able to contribute, especially with an offense like this. Being in the 9-hole, your job is just to get on base and set the table.”
FSU got the scoring started in the top of the second as Jaime Ferrer walked and scored on a base hit by Drew Faurot as the Noles went up 1-0.
Ferrer drew a bases-loaded walk an inning later to make it 2-0. Daniel Cantu added a sacrifice fly to push the advantage to 3-0.
Vance Honeycutt and Casey Cook had consecutive doubles with two away in the bottom of the third as UNC pulled with two at 3-1.
Cantu, Alex Lodise, West and Williams all delivered RBI singles in the top of the fifth as the lead grew to 7-1.
Honeycutt smacked a three-run homer, his 28th long ball of the season, in a four-run fifth for the Tar Heels to make it 7-5.
West and Williams led off the ninth with consecutive dingers, No. 3 for West and No. 14 for Williams, to extend the lead to 9-5. The Seminoles have hit a home run in 18 straight games.
Connor Hults (3-1) finished the game for FSU, hurling a career-high 4.1 innings with two hits, no runs, one walk and two strikeouts to earn the victory.
“It was probably the biggest component in my outing today,” Hults said of his fastball. “Being able to locate the fastball in any count was new to my game. We mixed in some more fastballs and change-ups, start to get the hitters off the curveball. When I was able to locate some fastballs and then expand on my off-speed when needed, it definitely worked in our favor.”
Cantu went 2 for 3 with a walk, one run and two RBI for the Seminoles.
FSU finished with 14 hits, drew nine walks and scored nine runs. The Seminoles have averaged 11.3 hits and 9.0 runs in three CWS contests.
“You have to be disciplined enough not to swing at everything to give your opportunity count-wise to actually walk or get hit,” Jarrett said. “So it was a combination of everything today. That’s really been our story all year. We have a lot of different ways that we can be a good offensive team.”
Honeycutt was a triple short of the cycle, going 3 for 5 with two runs and three RBI for UNC.
“Florida State has got a really good team,” UNC head coach Scott Forbes said. “At the end of the day, they played better than we did. But we battled. We battled all year. Didn’t surprise me we made a run back there. Just didn’t get it done.”
Notes
Tuesday’s second game between Florida and Kentucky was postponed due to expected severe weather. The Gators and Wildcats will play on Wednesday, June 19, at 10 a.m. CT.
This was the first meeting this season between Florida State and North Carolina.
Three teams have been eliminated so far from the 2024 College World Series and all are from the ACC.