College: No. 1 Florida State Tops No. 5 Tennessee 5-2 Sunday at St. Petersburg/Clearwater Elite Invitational

The last game of the inaugural St. Petersburg/Clearwater Elite Invitational started with a spectacular sunset Sunday night as the backdrop for an battle of two Top 5 opponents in an undefeated ACC team, Florida State, taking on the SEC’s Tennessee Vols, who were looking to spoil the Seminoles’ perfect record.

It wasn’t to be on this night as the top-ranked Noles ran its record to 11-0—including three wins over Top 10 teams this weekend in the Extra Inning Softball/JWOS Power Rankings–by defeating the No. 5 ranked Vols 5-2 before a packed field in Clearwater, Florida.

On Friday, Florida State beat No. 4 Oklahoma 7-4 and on Saturday topped No. 7 LSU 9-1 in six innings. Wins over three teams ranked in the Top 7 in a span of three days—not a bad weekend for Lonni Alameda’s team.

“I don’t think we really knew what to expect with this weekend, but we knew it was going to be competitive,” FSU head coach Lonni Alameda said to Seminoles.com.

“What we’ve seen is that we gained a lot of experience in being confident from the World Series and that has shown up here. Meghan King has been in big moments and she’s still laughing and relaxed and playing the game.”

“I’m most impressed with how the team is playing the game within the game and having so much fun in being in the right spot for the right pitch, or getting a swing off for the team. The mental things that we’ve been working on are showing up for us early in the season, more than it ever has before.”

The Seminoles were on-fire all weekend as the National Champs batted .375 as a team with an impressive 15 home runs—at least one from all nine starters–and outscored their opponents 51-9 in the six wins.

World Series hero Meghan King went the distance for Florida State, giving up two earned runs on five hits with five strikeouts to run her record to 5-0 on the season.

FSU set the tone early with a Cali Harrod solo home run in the bottom of the 1^st inning and the Noles would score one in the second and three more in the bottom of the 3^rd to effectively put the game away behind King’s impressive pitching

After allowing two runs in one and 1/3^rd innings, Caylan Arnold was replaced by true freshman Ashley Rogers and, after a Harrod single, Sydney Sherrill hit a two-run home run that bounced off the top off the wall to bring the score to 4-0.

It was her fourth dinger of the season and Lizzie Mason followed with a solo homer–the second time in the tournament the pair went back-to-back (the other time was against Oklahoma).

King held the Vols off the bases until the 4th inning when Tennessee loaded the bases and another true freshman, Ally Shipman, singled in a pair of runs.

It looked the SEC power would draw closer, but outfielder Dani Morgan saved the day with a catch that turned what appeared headed for a three-run homer into Tennessee’s third out.

Morgan’s catch effectively took the wind out of Tennessee’s sails and made it clear that the ACC program is the clear-cut favorite based on early season play in the ESPN-produced event.