Suffering from leg cramps, Tony Delmonico used his bat to give him an easy trip around the bases. The former Farragut High School star's three-run home run capped a five-run seventh inning as Florida State unleashed a 25-hit attack on Florida (34-24) for a 17-11 victory in an elimination game at the Tallahassee Regional of the NCAA baseball tournament on Saturday.
"I wasn't trying to swing at anything in the dirt, just trying to get a good pitch to hit," said Delmonico, who played two seasons at Tennessee before transferring to the Seminoles after his father was fired as coach of the Vols last year. "That swing was about 85 to 90 percent, just trying to put the ball into play and fortunately, it went over the fence."
The Seminoles, the No. 4 national seed, rallied from an early four-run deficit, then broke a 9-9 tie by outscoring the Gators 8-2 over the final four innings. Six Florida State (49-11) players collected at least three hits, led by Tyler Holt and Jason Stidham with four each.
Florida State reliever Elih Villanueva (7-2) struck out 10, including seven of the last nine Gators he faced after replacing starter Matt Fairel to start the fourth inning.
Florida's first postseason appearance in three years came to an end when the Gators could not hold a 5-1 lead after three innings.
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Comments » 11
tigervol9802 writes:
What this article does not tell you is that they got shut out 7-0 by the region's 4 seed, Bucknell, on Friday.
I'm sure somehow it was due to his father's incompotence.
smitbo7 writes:
I am glad to see Tony experiencing success.
BigOrangeVol writes:
Rod is just a Volunteer Assistant Coach at FSU.
Delmonico led Tennessee to four SEC Eastern Division Titles, two SEC Conference championships and eight NCAA Regional appearances. In four all-time appearances at the College World Series, Delmonico was at the helm for three of those seasons guiding Tennessee to Omaha in 1995, 2001 and 2005. He is the winningest baseball coach in Tennessee history.
In addition, Delmonico was named Baseball America's 1995 National Coach of the Year, SEC Coach of the Year in 1994 and 1995 and Tennessee Baseball Coach of the Year in 1994, 1995 and 2001.
Calling him incompotent isn't very fair. What would you call the 27-29 season we just had? Was that because of incompetent coaching? It sure wasn't better than last years 34-25! I'm behind Coach Todd Raleigh 100% but taking pot shots at Rod because VU had an excellent team last year isn't right to a man that gave 18 years of his life to UT.
BTW, FSU eliminated the Gators last night 17-11 to stay alive.
WorkinLikeHeck writes:
Yeah, Rodball had a first team All American this year at Oral Roberts, Brian Van Kirk, sitting on the bench half the year last year.
DingoVol writes:
I went to the game yesterday and Delmonico's ball was a bomb. He crushed it. Made up for a throwing error earlier in the game. They beat Bucknell 24-8 today and play Tulane tonight. I am happy he has been able to come to FSU and play as well as he has. I will take the trade of Delmonico for Brandon Warren. Both players benefit from the change of scenery. Go Vols!
sdye16#641965 writes:
It's about time Tony made up for an error. Don't forget that he was the guy who claimed he was going to be the next Chris Burke had about 12 errors through the first 9 games in Rod's last season up here. I'm glad Tony left, because he was nothing but a liability in the field.
GreerVol22 writes:
Another feeble attempt by the KNS sports editor to slam UT. Got news for you chief, its the team around Delmonico that makes FSU#4, not Tony or anything his Diddy has done..
By the way, all those appearances came in contract renewal years, so he actually gave 3 years of his life to UT, the rest was just pretending.
andy112382#209793 writes:
Baseball = My bridge over the gap I call summer to football time in Tennessee!
lovavol#255599 writes:
sour grapes.......all of you saying negative things about this kid and his dad...one off season and no thanks for the program he built.....not the ADs brightest move
mloaks#222092 writes:
worst coaching change at UTK since Houston...
mtcoop writes:
Thanks to Delmonio's 3 errors in the 9th inning, Florida State gets blown out in the College World Series! Thanks for not staying at U.T. Tony! Hey, it was time for a coaching change. Coach Delmonico was a good coach but there are plenty of other coaches out there. In fact, there are a lot more, better, coaches out there waiting to move Tennessee into the upper levels of college baseball.
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