End of a curse: Florida State softball opens WCWS with win for first time under Alameda

Florida State softball has accomplished plenty in the 15 years under head coach Lonni Alameda.

Even then, the No. 3 Seminoles accomplished a first in a rain-delayed run-rule 8-0 victory over No. 6 Oklahoma State on the first day of the NCAA Softball Women's College World Series Thursday.

For the first time under Alameda and the first time since 2002, FSU opened the World Series with a victory.

It was also the largest WCWS win for FSU in program history.

"Really proud. This is new territory for us," Alameda said. "We broke the curse of losing the first game, so that's pretty exciting for us."

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FSU jumped on Oklahoma State early and never looked back.

Michaela Edenfield blasted a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning. Kaley Mudge's three-run home run highlighted the Seminoles' four-run fourth inning. And starting pitcher Kat Sandercock was superb, throwing five scoreless innings, allowing four hits with four strikeouts to improve to 27-3. Jahni Kerr delivered the game-winning hit in the sixth inning.

“Obviously not the way we drew this up. We didn't play well in any facet of the game,” Oklahoma State coach Kenny Gajewksi said. “We didn't pitch well. We didn't play good catch. We didn't get enough good at-bats. I thought that Sandercock's stuff was electric, made it really hard on us. So we got to bounce back."

The Seminoles, meanwhile, avoided a frustrating trend.

FSU had only won the first game of the WCWS twice in its first 11 appearances.

The Seminoles defeated UCLA 2-1 in 2002 to open the World Series. They defeated Fresno State 1-0 to open the tournament in 1990.

In 2018, the Seminoles became the third team to lose its first game of the WCWS and travel back through the losers bracket to win the title, joining Texas A&M (1983) and UCLA (2003). They lost the opener to UCLA (7-4) before winning out to win the program's first national championship.

In the 2021 World Series, FSU fell 4-0 to UCLA in its opener but won four consecutive elimination games to advance to the best-of-three championship series against No. 1 Oklahoma. The Seminoles won the opener but dropped the next two to the Sooners.

Sandercock was proud how FSU handled its opening game Thursday.

"I think we talked about just the ability to come out and play our game," Sandercock said. "It's a different environment, it's exciting. It's a lot of pressure. A lot of hype just surrounding the World Series. Just the ability to come out and stay within ourselves and play Florida State softball was really big for us.

"That was my goal, just staying within my routine. Eyeing up my defense, eyeing up Micheala. I think that's definitely what allowed me to be successful."

With the victory, FSU advances in the winners' bracket and has Friday off.

The Seminoles will play the winner of Washington-Utah at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Washington-Utah opener was moved from Thursday to Friday at 1 p.m. due to weather.

"Uh-huh, yeah. Again, alluding to the other question earlier about taking care of our game. If we want the best softball on TV, we have to take care of it," Alameda said of winning the first game.

"Honestly, it's kind of a joke about we've always lost here. The reality is I felt like we've always come here and played softball and made adjustments while we've played in this tournament. It's another tournament for us. Yes, it's the biggest stage and there are only eight teams playing.

"If we can keep it that simple and play that simple game of softball right now, we have opportunities to get to the next day. Whether that's the double life or you're in the winner's bracket, you have to keep it as simple as it's the next day to play softball.

"I think it's pretty cool everyone is talking about it. The fact is we get a day off tomorrow, regroup, we're going to have a tough one on Saturday."

Reach Ehsan Kassim at ekassim@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Ehsan_Kassim. You can also follow our coverage on Facebook (NoleSports) and Instagram (tlhnolesports).

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