OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Jaime Ferrer hit two homers, Carson Dorsey turned in a third straight strong start, and Florida State bounced back from a gut-wrenching loss two days earlier to stay alive in the College World Series with a 7-3 win over Virginia on Sunday.
The Seminoles (48-16) have won at least one game in five straight CWS appearances since 2010 and will play Tuesday against the loser of Sunday night’s North Carolina-Tennessee matchup.
The Cavaliers (46-17) went 0-2 in Omaha for the second straight year and have lost six straight CWS games since 2021.
Florida State was coming off a 12-11 walk-off loss to No. 1 national seed Tennessee in its CWS opener Friday night. Many in garnet and gold thought the Seminoles were robbed of a win when a check-swing call that could have ended the game instead went Tennessee’s way before Dylan Dreiling’s game-winning hit.
FSU coach Link Jarrett said Friday’s outcome left him with a terrible headache that lasted well into Saturday, and he was concerned about how his team would respond.
“This probably was the best game we played this year,” Jarrett said. “That sums up what’s in that dugout. It’s not easy to go to bed after that, not a pleasant day. To watch them play their best game, that’s a thrill I’ll never forget here. That’s beyond an experience I’ve ever had here, just the response.”
Ferrer connected on Virginia starter Jay Woolfolk’s first pitch of the fourth inning and launched a wind-aided fly into the left-field bullpen off Joe Savino for a three-run shot in the fifth. Ferrer has three homers in two CWS games, five in his last four games and 22 for the season.
Ferrer has driven in four runs in back-to-back games, making him the first player with multiple games with four or more RBIs in a single CWS since Southern California’s Robb Gorr in 1998, according to ESPN.
Dorsey (8-4), who allowed three runs and struck out seven, was lifted for Brennen Oxford after giving up a base hit to start the eighth. In three NCAA Tournament starts, Dorsey has yielded five earned runs and struck out 20 in 21 innings.
All four of Dorsey’s pitches were working at a high level, particularly his curve, and he leaned on the breaking more than usual.
“We saw it work early in the game and we decided to stay with it,” he said. “No need to change what’s working.”
The left-hander held the Cavaliers scoreless until the seventh, when the ball popped out of Ferrer’s glove as he tried to make a sliding catch of Henry Godbout’s liner to left. That allowed Ethan Anderson to score from second, and Casey Saucke followed with an RBI single.
Woolfolk (4-2) left in the fourth after he tweaked his right knee on the pitch Ferrer drove out for his first homer of the game. Athletic trainer Brian McGuire made a mound visit, and Woolfolk threw some warmup pitches to see if he could continue. He got an out and walked Drew Faurot, prompting another visit from McGuire. This time Woolfolk came out and Savino relieved.
“Freak accident,” an emotional Woolfolk said. “I feel fine. I feel great now. Just something that happened. I wish I could have kept going.”
It was a difficult ending for Woolfolk, originally a two-sport athlete who was expected to compete for the starting quarterback’s job on the football team in 2023. He announced a month before fall camp that he would give up football to focus on baseball, and he was a weekend starter the first month of the season.
He struggled with his control and went to the bullpen, but coach Brian O’Connor gave him another opportunity to start in the postseason and he turned in two of the best performances of his career in regionals and super regionals. He was sharp Sunday until he got hurt, striking out three while retiring the first six FSU batters.
The game was delayed more than five minutes in the eighth inning after home plate umpire Linus Baker was shaken up when a foul ball into the dirt behind the plate bounced into his right knee and up under his mask’s chin pad. Medical personnel tended to Baker and gave him the OK to continue and equipment staff checked his mask before play resumed.
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