The Florida State softball team is one win away from Oklahoma City.
The Seminoles went into Baton Rouge, La., on Thursday night and beat host LSU, 1-0, in the first game of an NCAA Super Regional. If they win one more, they’ll be returning to the Women’s College World Series for the first time since winning the national title in 2018.
“Wow, what a game,” FSU coach Lonni Alameda said. “Really exciting. Super Regionals are so much fun. Kat and our defense did outstanding. What a fun ballgame. I am really proud of our group.”
Kathryn Sandercock was once again the story for the Seminoles (43-10-1). The sophomore pitcher, coming off a complete-game, one-hit shutout of UCF in a regional championship game, followed up that stellar effort with another sensational one on Thursday night.
***Don’t miss out on our great FSU sports coverage. Get your 30-day FREE trial!***
Sandercock allowed just two hits in another complete-game shutout, and now has nine complete games on the season.
Florida State’s offense didn’t do much on Thursday night either. But it did enough.
Sidney Sherrill led off the top of the sixth with a single, and Kalei Harding singled to center field to put runners on the corners with no outs for Cassidy Davis.
Davis then drove home the only run of the game on a sac fly to right field that scored Sherrill.
LSU got the tying run to second base in the bottom of the seventh inning, but Sandercock induced a groundout to second to end it and put the Seminoles up 1-0 in the best-of-three series.
It was — by far — the biggest crowd FSU has played in front of on the road this season. It didn’t seem to have too big of an impact on the starting pitcher. At least not in Game 1.
“I wanted to make sure I didn’t let the crowd get to me,” Sandercock said. “It was just a lot of pitch by pitch. And a drop ball is a drop ball whether it’s in Supers or not, so it was just trusting what I have.”
If Florida State can win on Friday or Saturday, it will return to the College World Series for the fourth time under Alameda.
First pitch for Game 2 is set for 7 p.m. on Friday night.
—————————————————-
Talk about this story with other Florida State sports fans in the Tribal Council