Seminoles' late rally off Sillman beats NU

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BY CURT McKEEVER

MINNEAPOLIS - The last thing Florida State baseball coach Mike Martin wanted to do in a tie game Friday was instruct Derrick Smith how to approach the submarine-style delivery of Nebraska's Mike Sillman.

"Derek is from a southern Georgia town that has nothing but a caution light, so you don't tell him nothing but 'Take that big shelalie up there and hit it,'" Martin said. "If you start analyzing things with him, he'll think it's a class and cut it."

The hands-off plan with Smith worked wonders for the 22nd-ranked Seminoles in their first-ever meeting with the No. 14 Huskers at the Dairy Queen Classic.

With one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, the sophomore drove a 2-0 delivery from the Huskers' closer off the giant elastic wall in right field to produce the decisive run in a 5-3 victory in the Metrodome.

"He was pretty dirty," Smith said, complimenting Sillman. "(But) he's pretty much got to throw a strike there - I just happened to get a good part of the bat on it."

Smith, a .316 hitter with 13 RBIs, produced the first triple of his career after Aaron Cheesman had singled to center with one out. He then scored on Bryan Zech's single.

Nebraska, which fell to 5-2, had tied the game in the seventh on Alex Gordon's sacrifice fly to center. That drove in Joe Simokaitis, who had doubled down the left-field line with one out and ended up at third with the bases loaded.

Gordon, hitting third in the order, also delivered an RBI single in the first and turned a defensive gem with an inning-ending double play in the third. But the Huskers, who led 2-0 after the second, sputtered offensively against four FSU hurlers thanks to their Nos. 4 through 7 hitters going a combined 1-for-14.

"We should've got a lot more hits off him," Gordon said of the Seminoles' starter Hunter James, who scattered six hits over 51/3 innings. "He wasn't that great. We just didn't come out ready to play."

That's puzzling, considering the Huskers had everything to gain against a perennial power that has played in 11 of the past 18 College World Series.

"I don't know," Gordon said when asked to explain. "We've got to put this behind us."

Down 2-0 after Simokaitis drove in Kevin Belcher with a second-inning single to left, the Seminoles (10-4) scored twice in the third.

Starting pitcher Zach Kroenke gave up singles to Shane Robinson and Stephen Drew, then hit Eddy Martinez-Esteve with an 0-2 pitch to load the bases. Kroenke got Daniel Wardell to foul out to Gordon, but second baseman Jake Mullinax misplayed a high chopper hit by Cheesman, and the ball bounded away far enough to allow the speedy Drew to score the tying run from second.

Drew, projected to be a first-round pick in the next major-league amateur draft, then gave Florida State its first lead by hitting Kroenke's first pitch of the fifth off the upper-deck facade behind right-center.

The Seminoles wouldn't threaten again until they scored in the eighth, but Rhett James, Brian Schultz and Kevin Lynch combined to throw 32/3 innings of one-hit relief to keep the Huskers on their heels.

"You get a chance to say 'Here's a perennial Top 20 program.' We need to win those games," said NU coach Mike Anderson. "From the third through seventh innings I felt like we were an average team just playing along."

Sillman, who in his first two appearances had allowed one hit and no runs over 21/3 innings, suffered his first loss of the season. He declined interview requests.

"He's our closer, and he will be," said NU pitching coach Rob Childress. "I told him if it's a 3-2 game in the ninth inning against Minnesota tomorrow, he's coming in.

"He went 3-1 and 2-0 in the count (to Cheesman and Smith), and good hitters are going to hit those."

Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@;journalstar.com.