After one of the weirdest games in Florida State baseball postseason history, including two rain delays, one of which caused the game to resume Sunday morning, the Seminoles have staved off elimination with a 2-1 win over Coastal Carolina.

On Saturday, the Seminoles had to pause in the middle of the fourth inning due to inclement weather, before only getting the fifth in, before another wave of rain came in. After two-and-a-half hours, the NCAA decided to delay the game’s restart until 11 a.m. on Sunday. The weather in Tallahassee certainly has not cooperated this weekend, throwing the regional and the Seminoles’ pitching plan all out of sorts.

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The story of the game for FSU was their pitchers on the mound as Wes Mendes, Brodie Purcell, and Trey Beard combined to throw nine innings of one-run ball while striking out an incredible 18 batters. Mendes went only four innings due to rain, but looked incredibly sharp before Purcell posted a zero in his only inning of work. With the game pushed into Sunday, Jarrett went with Beard and pushed his chips into the middle of the table. Beard delivered as he held the Noles’ slim one-run advantage, allowing his team to live another day (six hours?). The pitching options will be slim for an FSU team that needs to win three more games, but the head coach did what he had to do. Now, the Seminoles await the loser of Northern Illinois and St. John’s and will play a quasi-doubleheader later today.

Mendes struck out the first two batters he faced in the first, but quickly found trouble later in the inning after handing out three straight free passes with two outs. However, the FSU ace left them loaded with a punchout, and in the second, Mendes struck out the side, recording his first six outs on strikes. In the bottom of the frame, the Noles threatened as Hunter Carns and Ben Barrett singled, but a double play and a strikeout with a runner on third kept FSU off the board as the hitting struggles with runners in scoring position mounted.

The intensity was turned up in the third as Coastal Carolina drew first blood from small ball. A hit-by-pitch, a sacrifice bunt, and a two-out single put the Chanticleers ahead before Mendes picked off the runner on first to retire the side. Florida State put a runner in scoring position in the home half, and Brayden Dowd recorded a 12-pitch at-bat to try to drive home John Stuetzer, but a controversial strike-three call left the runner on base. Third-base coach Ty Megahee vehemently disagreed with Dowd getting rung up and was thrown out of the game, the second straight year an FSU coach has been ejected from a regional.

After a 1-2-3 top half of the fourth, the contest took another turn when the game was delayed by rain with one out in the bottom of the inning. Both starting pitchers were forced to exit the game after a two-hour, 32-minute pause. When play resumed, Carns drew a walk, and with two outs, Nathan Cmeyla doubled to center field, scoring Carns and tying the game at one.

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With Mendes forced out of the game, Link Jarrett turned the game over to Brodie Purcell, who looked sharp coming out of the bullpen, twirling a 1-2-3 fifth, including an inning-ending strikeout. Florida State then took the lead in the home half as Cal Fisher got ahead in the count 3-1 and pounded a solo homer over the left-field fence to give his team a 2-1 advantage.

Right as the momentum shifted back toward FSU, the skies opened again, as the game entered its second rain delay. With so much water over the last two days, the field surface became unplayable, and at 9:08 p.m., almost three hours after the game was paused, in conjunction with the NCAA, Florida State’s game was postponed to Sunday morning as the two sides resumed play in the top of the sixth at 11 a.m.

Jarrett then pulled another lever, deciding to use Trey Beard, who was supposed to be the starter of game three, to try and record the final 12 outs. The lefty started off shaky with a leadoff walk, but stranded a runner in scoring position with back-to-back strikeouts. In the seventh, he posted his first 1-2-3 inning, quickly reaching peak form.

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During the Florida State half of the sixth, the Noles had a chance to push their lead as Brody DeLamielleure singled and stole second, but was left on as Jarrett’s team went 0-6 with runners in scoring position. In the ensuing inning, a two-out Fisher double gave FSU another chance for an insurance run, but a groundout ended the frame.

Beard’s electric outing kept rolling in the top half of the eighth as he posted his second-straight 1-2-3 frame. Holding on to a one-run lead in the ninth, Beard ripped through the heart of the CCU order, striking out the side to keep his team alive and send the Noles into game five of the Tallahassee regional. The FAU transfer was as good as Florida State has seen, with all four pitches in play, including his impressive changeup. Beard faced 14 batters and punched out nine of them while twirling four scoreless innings to save the Seminole bullpen for the rest of the regional.

2026 Tallahassee Regional: Schedule

Sunday, May 31

Game 3: No. 1 Florida State 2, No. 2 Coastal Carolina 1

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Coastal Carolina eliminated

Game 4: No. 4 St. John’s vs. No. 3 Northern Illinois

Game 5: No. 1 Florida State vs. Loser Game 4

Monday, June 1

Game 6: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5

Game 7: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 6 (if necessary)