Florida State Softball Defeats UCF To Advance To NCAA Super Regionals

Release from Florida State Athletics:

For the third straight season, No. 9 Florida State (48-12) advanced to the super regional round of the NCAA Championships after earning a 5-0 victory over No. 13 UCF (50-9) on May 17 to clinch the 2015 NCAA Tallahassee Regional.

Seminole starting pitcher Jessica Burroughs (18-5) was nearly perfect, allowing just two base hits on a single in the second and seventh innings. She posted a total of six strikeouts as she retired 21 of the 23 UCF batters she faced.

“First off, like I said yesterday UCF – what an amazing program and season they had,” said FSU head coach Lonni Alameda. “Kind of a bummer for it to work out for them to be here and not be able to host but what fight they had. It was awesome to compete against them and nothing is more exciting than having a true competitor on the other side of the field.

“We take really great pride in being a team that’s smarter the second time around and from our freshman all the way up to our seniors being able to be consistent with that today and stick to their game plan was really awesome to see as a coach and I couldn’t say more about Jessica Burroughs and doing what she’s done for us this weekend and last weekend.”

Morgan Klaevemann opened the game with a bunt single in the top of the first inning to extend her hitting streak to 26 games. The streak is tied for 24th all-time in NCAA history and is second in FSU and ACC history to Natasha Jacob’s 28-game streak from April 4, 2005 to February 14, 2006. It marked the seventh time in Klaevemann’s 15 games as a leadoff hitter that the freshman started the FSU first inning with a base hit.

The Seminoles got on the board in the third inning as Macey Cheatham placed an excellent bunt through the charging UCF defense to open the inning. Klaevemann followed with a double to left center and FSU loaded the bases with nobody out on a walk to Maddie O’Brien.

That ended the afternoon for UCF starter Shelby Turnier as Mackenzie Audas entered the game in the circle. Audas retired her first batter, Jessica Warren, on a fly out to left field, but it was deep enough for Cheatham to tag and score on the sacrifice fly and give the Seminoles a 1-0 lead.

After a hit-by-pitch to Alex Powers to reload the bases, Ellie Cooper came through with a sacrifice fly to center to give the Noles a 2-0 lead after three innings.

Florida State added three unearned runs in the top of the fourth to take a 5-0 lead. Cheatham drew a two-out walk, and came in to score on a throwing error by UCF’s Farrah Sullivan on a grounder by Klaevemann. Following a walk to O’Brien, her 72nd of the season, Warren ripped a two-RBI double off the wall in left to extend the FSU lead.

Burroughs won her ninth straight decision and gave up zero runs for the fifth time in her last seven appearances, dating back to May 3 at North Florida. The Warner Robins, Ga., native has given up only one walk in her last 25.1 innings of work.

“I had the game plan to come out and attack the zone and all of the slappers, they have a lot of those, and feed my defense,” Burroughs said. “I know they’re back there shifting for me and just trust that my defense is going to be there for me and that my movement is going to break.

“At this point it’s just throw what I have and go with my game plan and that’s what happened today. My team was great on offense and got the lead. It took a lot of pressure off of me today and felt so good to come out and win and have a really loose game, it was really great.”

Turnier (25-8) took the loss for UCF, allowing two runs on four hits over 2.0 innings with two walks and a strikeout. Audas finished the game for the Knights in the circle and limited FSU to one hit, but three unearned runs, with three walks and three strikeouts in 5.0 innings.

Florida State advances to the NCAA Super Regional round for the fourth time in program history and the third season in a row. It also marked the tenth win over ranked opponents for the Seminoles in 2015, giving Alameda 36 ranked wins since 2009, including 18 in the last two seasons.