Mike Martin's Last Ride

This weekend was the last opening weekend ever for FSU legend Mike Martin. The living legend is calling it quits after this season. FSU's brilliant coach had a fitting final opener with an 11-0 victory. Eleven to zero in the final opening game for Eleven. If that isn't the perfect opener, I do not know what is. I am sure the fact that his team had a no-hitter made it even better. It was the 10th no hitter in program history. Maybe this year, we will see the 11th as well?

Drew Parrish, Conor Grady, and Chase Haney combined for the no-hitter. Parrish had 5 strikeouts over 5 innings of work to notch his first of what will be many victories for the Seminoles this season...

Onto Game 2..

Game 2 was another slugfest. The Noles won that one 16-3 on Saturday. CJ Van Eck picked up the win in that one. Van Eck had 8 strikeouts in 5 innings of work.

Game 3 ended in a walk-off!!!!!

The Noles swept the doubleheader of the opening series on Saturday with a walk off hit against Maine. Mat Nelson's sacrifice fly was able to score JC Flowers from 3rd base and deliver the win for the Seminoles. Flowers has been a multi-year starter for Martin and pinch ran before ultimately delivering the winning run. Flowers had an outstanding weekend scoring 6 runs on just 5 official at-bats. He had a tremendous start to the series to move the Noles to 3-0 in Martin's final campaign. What an exciting win for the Noles and a great way to send 11 out right.

This series against Maine had a 4th game on Sunday. The Noles won that one too, to move to 4-0. With that 9-1 victory over Maine on Sunday, the Noles sure like like a force to be reckoned with in 2019. 11 has got another awesome team on his hands.

Who could have written a better script for this weekend? I am not sure who could have, but there is only one thing that can top this season and this legendary career. Let's finally send this guy off right and get him that win in Omaha. That would truly be a fitting end to a legendary career.

- Noland

Who Will the Noles Play in the CWS?

So we know the Noles are in and we are all excited. There are 8 teams that play in the College World Series though. Who are the other 7? Well only a few have been announced yet, but I thought I'd post some pics from the victory first. If you want one of the shirts posted, head to Seminoles.com and click on the shop. You will find them easily.

You can tell by the shirts that there are 5 teams who advanced and that there are three to still be decided. Unfortunately, our rivals and the current #1 overall seed, the Florida Gators advanced. The #2 team was UCLA and they also advanced. We were the #3 overall seed. Any time the top 3 teams advance it looks like chalk city, but as Lee Corso says "not so fast my friends."

Cinderella has also joined the dance. Stony Brook who was a 4th seed in a regional which is basically a 16th seed has advanced to the College World Series. Not just that, but they look hungry. They knocked Miami out and won the Coral Gables Regional. From there they went to the Baton Rouge Super Regional and knocked out the #7 overall LSU Tigers. What a huge win for the Stony Brook team. Just a few years ago Stony Brook was Division 3. Now they are 1 of 8 teams left. In case you were wondering, Gausman (the Orioles 1st rounder) won game 1 for the Tigers in relief and then lost game 2 as a starter.

The other team to advance already was the Arizona Wildcats. Arizona was a #1 seed, but not in the top 8 national seeds. So they are somewhere between 9-16. If you do the math, Arizona would have been matched up with UNC who was #7 so that would put Arizona @ #10 in this tournament. Therefore, 4 top 10 teams have advanced so far and we can get 3 more.

#5 Oregon is currently tied with the Cinderella Kent State @ 1 game a piece. Will another top 10 get in or will we have two Cinderellas.

Two time defending champion and #8 South Carolina is up one game on Oklahoma. Oklahoma would love to knock out the reigning champs. Meanwhile, SC would love the three-peat.

Finally, #3 Baylor is taking on SEC powerhouse Arkansas. While Arkansas is a 2 seed, they are more than capable of taking down Baylor. That series is tied at a game a piece. This could be the positive news that Arkansas is desperately looking for following the Petrino scandal.

-Noland