State Tops FSU Again For Tallahassee Regional Title

Sunday, June 3

Tallahassee, Fla.

TBA

Mississippi State

Florida State

State's Brandon Turner Tabbed SEC Freshman Of The Week

State Tops FSU Again For Tallahassee Regional Title

June 03, 2007 | Baseball

By: hailstate.com

* Official Statistics
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - No. 27 Mississippi State piled up 14 hits and got a solid starting pitching performance from senior starter Josh Johnson Sunday night and went on to capture the 2007 Tallahassee Regional with a 9-4 win over No. 6 national seed Florida State (49-13) at Dick Howser Stadium. The Bulldogs (36-20), seeded second in the regional, reeled off three straight wins to advance to their third NCAA Super Regional. The eight super regional sites are to be announced Monday at 10 p.m. CDT.

I'm proud of the boys, said MSU skipper Ron Polk. Florida State is such a great ball club with great tradition and a great home record. It's a credit to our players. They pitched, hit and played defense extremely well this weekend.

Mitch Moreland collected a pair of hits, drove in three runs and pitched the final inning in relief to pace MSU. Starter Josh Johnson (3-3) gave the Bulldogs a strong six-inning start, allowing four runs on five hits with six strikeouts. Relief pitchers Ricky Bowen, Aaron Weatherford and Moreland combined for three innings of scoreless relief.

Florida State struck first. Buster Posey drew a two-out walk in the first inning and scored on Jack Rye's ninth home run of the year, a towering shot to right-center. It would be the only time during the weekend the Bulldogs would trail.

The Bulldogs used the long ball to do the Seminoles one better in the bottom of the first. Jeffrey Rea drew a lead-off walk and second baseman Brandon Turner followed with his second home run of the year that tied the score at 2-2. Rosen struck out Edward Easley and Mitch Moreland before Brian LaNinfa put the Bulldogs on top 3-2 with his fifth home run of the year that cleared the right field fence.

FSU hitting leader Tony Thomas doubled off the screen in right field in the third inning, stole third and scored when Mark Hallberg singled up the middle, tying the score at 3-3.

Mississippi State batted through the order and regained the lead with its second three-run burst of the game in the bottom of the third. After retiring the first two batters in the frame, Rosen struck Mitch Moreland with a pitch, walked Brian LaNinfa, advanced both runners with a wild pitch and then struck Joseph McCaskill with a pitch to load the bases. Russ Sneed drove in two runs with his first career multi-RBI hit, a single to left. After Wynn Diggs reached with a single, freshman Jet Butler laced a run-scoring single to right that drove in the third Bulldog run of the inning and ended starter Danny Rosen's stay in the game. With the bases loaded, lefty Matt Fairel came on to record the final out with a strikeout.

State added another a run for a 7-3 lead in the when Easley singled to left and raced home on Mitch Moreland's 22nd double of the year.

Rye cracked his second home run of the game in the sixth inning, trimming the State lead to 7-4.

Freshmen Ricky Bowen replaced Josh Johnson on the hill in the seventh and quickly worked into and out of a major jam. A bloop one-out single and a pair of walks loaded the bases with Seminoles, but Bowen retired Jack Rye with a groundout to second to quiet the FSU rally.

Aaron Weatherford and Mitch Moreland each pitched an inning of no-hit relief to close out the game.

It seems like we've been missing that big hit late in the season, said Moreland. We knew when we started getting that big hit we would get hot and it would turn us around. We did it in all three games here and just played well.

All nine Bulldog starters hit safely in the game, with the top four in the MSU batting order combining for seven of MSU's 14 hits. Brandon Turner, Edward Easley and Mitch Moreland had two hits apiece as did Wyn Diggs and Jet Butler.

FSU starter Danny Rosen (3-3) took the loss. He was charged with six runs on six hits and lasted just 2-2/3 innings. Matt Fairel worked 4-2/3 innings of middle relief, giving up three runs on eight hits.

Four Bulldogs were named to the all-tournament team ??“ freshman second baseman Brandon Turner, freshman third baseman Russ Sneed, senior outfielder Jeffrey Rea and junior pitcher Justin Pigott, also named the tournament's most outstanding player.