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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Drew Mendoza's two-out base hit to right center drove home Mike Salvatore from second base in the bottom of the 12th inning, lifting Florida State to a 5-4 victory over LSU that sent the Seminoles to the College World Series on Sunday night.
LSU (40-26) had rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the sixth to tie it in the eighth and force extra innings, during which Tigers relievers pitched six no-hit innings and struck out 10 before Salvatore broke through for Florida State's first hit since the fourth inning. Salvatore advanced to second base on a passed ball and, after Fontenot (5-4) struck out Reese Albert for the second out, LSU elected to pitch to Mendoza — one of the Seminoles' most productive hitters — with first base open.
Mendoza delivered with his second hit of the game, and the Seminoles (41-21) spilled onto the field to celebrate a victory that sends 40th-year head coach Mike Martin back to Omaha for the 17th time since he took over the program.
Florida State reliever Antonio Velez (5-2) pitched 4 2/3 shutout innings in relief and struck out six to pick up his second win of the best-of-three Baton Rouge super regional after his inning of relief earned him the Game 1 win a day earlier.
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