TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State head coach Mike Martin said it best.
“I can’t remember distinctly the last time my daddy took me to the woodshed and whipped my butt,” he said. “But that’s pretty doggone close to the way I feel.”
From the opening pitch to the final out, the Seminoles didn’t stand a chance against Georgia Southern pitcher Sam Howard and the fourth-seeded Eagles, who pounded Florida State, the No. 4 team in the country, 7-0, in the opening game of the NCAA regionals Friday at Dick Howser Stadium.
The win moved GSU into a late-Saturday battle with third-seeded Kennesaw State, which topped second-seed Alabama, 1-0, on Friday. The winner will play at 5 p.m. Sunday, according to seminoles.com. The loser will play at noon today in an elimination game against the winner of Saturday’s Florida State-Alabama game. Saturday’s results were not available at press time.
On Friday, Howard pitched a complete game two-hitter and mowed down 10 batters as GSU belted out 16 hits.
 “My team battled all night and kept putting up runs,” Howard said. “It helped me relax all night.”