College of Charleston
Florida State
No. 15 CofCBaseball Falls to No. 10 FSU in Regional Title Game
6/2/2015 2:14:00 AM | Baseball
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – No. 15 College of Charleston baseball fell, 8-1, to No. 10 Florida State in the title game of the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Tallahassee Regional on Monday afternoon at Dick Howser Stadium.
The sun sets on one of the finest campaigns in program history, as Charleston finishes with an overall record of 45-15 after eclipsing several benchmarks and reaching its second Regional title game in as many seasons.
Cougar starter Hayden McCutcheon started the game promisingly for The College, dealing a blemish-free first and working out of trouble unscathed in the second, but an hour-long rain delay disrupted the flow of the game.
With two runners on after the restart, FSU's DJ Stewart laced an RBI double to center, followed by an RBI single by Regional Most Valuable Player Quincy Nieporte and an RBI sacrifice fly by Chris Marconcini.
The Seminoles doubled their lead in the fifth with a three-run homer to left by Nieporte, stretching a 6-0 lead with his second bomb of the Regional, both of which victimized the Cougars. FSU put the game further out of reach with two runs on four hits in the seventh, capped by RBI singles by Darren Miller and Danny De La Calle.
Seminole starter Drew Carlton neutralized the Cougar bats, holding the Cougars scoreless on six hits across the 6.2 innings he pitched. CofC finished the game 2-for-16 (.125) with runners on base and 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
Charleston got on the board in the eighth, as All-Regional selection Carl Wise drove a one-out single through the left side; moved to second on a Blake Butler walk; advanced to third on a groundout to the right side, and scored on a passed ball.
Wise finished the game 2-for-4, and Ryan Brown, Alex Pastorius, Blake Butler, Nick Pappas and Bradley Jones each contributed a hit.
“I'm very proud of this team and very proud of our efforts over the course of this year,” said head coach Monte Lee. “As far as today's game, you've got to give Florida State a lot of credit. I thought Drew Carlton, their starting pitcher, was outstanding. He set the tempo from the first pitch of the ball game. He worked extremely fast; he pounded the strike zone, and located his fastball down and away from the middle of the plate. I thought he did an outstanding job. In the third inning, after a couple free passes, (DJ) Stewart – who is potentially a very high-round draft pick and a guy who can play in the big leagues one day – does what great players do: he put a good swing on a pitch and really got them going. Then they capitalized on some mistakes again in the fifth inning.
“They had two big innings. It's very difficult to come back and win a game when you give up two big innings in a ball game. You've just got to give them credit; they played an outstanding ball game. Their starting pitcher and their bullpen was really, really good, and really tough on our guys today. We just couldn't get anything going. They deserve a lot of credit.”
Wise was joined on the All-Regional Team by Pappas who batted .438 (7-for-16) with three homers, a double, and five RBIs over the course of the week.
Charleston's 45-win season was the fourth in program history, and first under Lee. The Cougars did not lose back-to-back games after opening weekend, and remained a fixture in all five polls recognized by the NCAA for the final six weeks of the season.
“Our goal has always been to go to Omaha,” said Lee, “but I am more disappointed that this is the last time I get to see this group of kids together. You coach for the relationships with the players more than anything else. You throw batting practice; you hit groundballs to these guys, and you see these guys in the weight room every day. We are around them every day throughout the whole year, and the bond from coach to player is extremely strong, especially with me being from the College of Charleston and it being such a special place to me. It's just disappointing that their season has to come to an end after all they have accomplished; they have had a phenomenal year.”
| 2015 NCAA DIVISION I BASEBALL | |||||
| TALLAHASSEE REGIONAL/ALL-REGIONAL TEAM | |||||
| POS. | NAME | SCHOOL | |||
| C | Charlie Madden | Mercer | |||
| 1B | Nick Pappas | Charleston | |||
| 2B | John Sansone | Florida State | |||
| 3B | Carl Wise | Charleston | |||
| SS | Taylor Walls | Florida State | |||
| OF | Jackson Burgreen | Auburn | |||
| OF | Josh Delph | Florida State | |||
| OF | DJ Stewart | Florida State | |||
| P | Boomer Biegalski | Florida State | |||
| P | Drew Carlton | Florid State | |||
| DH | Quincy Nieporte | Florida State | |||
| MOST OUTSTANDING PLAYER: Quincy Nieporte, Florida State | |||||
