Top-seeded Miami took nursed a five-run lead into the ninth inning and hung on to survive and advance with a 7-5 victory over their Atlantic Coast Conference rival and fourth-seeded Florida State in a College World Series elimination game yesterday afternoon.
A Hurricanes four-run third inning gave Miami an early lead which it held throughout. After adding a pair of Miami runs in the seventh and a Blake Tekotte solo home run in the eighth, closer Carlos Gutierrez entered to close-out the game to start the ninth with a 7-2 lead.
In the Florida State ninth, the Seminoles led off the inning with two singles, before a pair of ground outs brought home the first run and cut the Miami lead to 7-3. A walk and two singles made it 7-5 with national player of the year Buster Posey (5th pick in MLB draft) as the go-ahead run. Posey drew a walk to load the bases but a grounder up the middle was fielded by Miami 2B Jemile Weeks to seal the victory.
Miami (53-10) advances to play another elimination game Wednesday night at 6 p.m. (Central) against the loser of Monday night’s winners’ bracket game between Stanford and Georgia. Florida State’s season ends with a record of 54-14.