FSU baseball battles past delays, defeats College of Charleston to reach Super … – Orlando Sentinel

TALLAHASSEE — Back in April, FSU coach Mike Martin was asked about the progress of some of his true freshmen. There were infielders Taylor Walls and Dylan Busby, as well as pitcher Cobi Johnson. All had their moments, good and bad, but undoubtedly filled critical roles for the Seminoles.

Taking inventory of his freshmen starters, Martin finally landed on one that caused him to perk up: Drew Carlton.

The soft-spoken righty from Lakeland had to grow up quickly as injuries forced him into a starter’s role way ahead of schedule this season. But Carlton, Martin said, was no longer a freshman in his mind.

While he’s had his growing pains, Carlton has consistently exhibited the ability to bounce back from rough outings and capitalize on strong ones. On Monday, Carlton took his game to a different level as he led top-seeded FSU (44-19) to an 8-1 win over College of Charleston (45-15) at Dick Howser Stadium in front of an announced crowd of 3,037. The Seminoles improved to 3-0 in the Tallahassee Regional and advanced to the Super Regional round in Gainesville, where they will play rival Florida.

“Stoic,” Martin said when asked to describe Carlton. “He’s not a guy that’s going to feel sorry for himself if a close call goes and gets him. And he’s not going to do nothing but get better.”

Carlton (5-5), who relied primarily on his fastball after starter Boomer Biegalski softened second-seeded Charleston up on Saturday with his effective changeup, threw 104 pitches through 6.2 innings, tying a career high for strikeouts (nine) while allowing six hits, one walk and no runs.

It came against a Cougars club that entered the NCAA Tournament ranking among the top 10 nationally in batting average and home runs.

“We’ve seen a lot of off-speed pitches the last three days and then they come back with a guy who can really command his fastball, that was tough,” Charleston second baseman Blake Butler said. “We had a couple chances early to maybe get to him, but we were just unable to. He settled in, stayed composed. . . . It’s tough to score runs when you don’t get free passes.”

Perhaps most impressive was how Carlton battled the elements, sort of. Carlton was supposed to pitch Sunday night, but an elimination game earlier in the day between Charleston and Auburn was delayed by more than six hours because of severe weather. FSU’s outing was pushed back to 2 p.m. Monday, although rain again delayed the contest for two hours. Three innings into Monday’s game, rain again postponed the contest for another hour.

“Living in Florida, we always have rain delays . . . so in the fall we would practice taking a break here or there to get prepared for rain delays,” said Carlton, who went to the football team’s indoor practice facility to throw with bullpen pitchers during the delay. “It didn’t bother me that much. I knew as soon as the lightning warning was going on I just had to come back out, pitch the way I know how to pitch and give my team a chance to win.”

Carlton, who has not allowed a run in 13.2 consecutive innings this postseason, was unfazed by the final weather delay. In fact, Martin said that Carlton looked even sharper coming out of the break.

The same could be said for FSU’s offense.

Top hitter DJ Stewart came to the plate in the third inning with runners on first and second and just one out, but he was called off after lightning was detected nearby.

Stewart, 57 minutes later, returned to the field and delivered an RBI double that was hit so hard it dented the outfield wall, according to Martin. Cleanup hitter Quincy Nieporte followed that up with an RBI single and then Chris Marconcini added another run on a sacrifice fly to put FSU ahead 3-0.

Nieporte – who what proved to be a game-winning home run in the eighth inning of FSU’s 3-2 win against Charleston on Saturday — came through with another memorable homer on Monday. His three-run blast in the fifth on Monday gave the Seminoles a sizable 6-0 lead, serving as a “back breaker,” according to Martin.

“I felt like if we put up another big inning, they were going to back off a little bit,” Nieporte said.

Nieporte was named the most outstanding player of the Tallahassee region.

bsonnone@orlandosentinel.com

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