TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- There was no white flag to hang out, no towel to be thrown in. The NCAA doesn't allow either in the NCAA Tournament.
Florida State officials know because in 2009 the Seminoles beat Ohio State 37-6 in a regional and even though both coaches agreed to have the game officially called, it wasn't allowed.
Sunday's game between Florida State (46-18) and Texas A&M (46-20) wasn't quite that brutal, but it had to resemble it in some ways as the Seminoles scored multiple runs in six innings for a 23-9 victory.
"Florida State did an outstanding job, took us out to the woodshed and that's the kind of offensive performance I [was] talking about last night that Florida State is capable of," Texas A&M coach Rob Childress said. "I really liked the things we did offensively today. I'm sure Florida State feels the same way. Give them credit, when you score 23, missed the extra point there at the end."
It was the most runs given up by a Texas A&M team since 1996 when Texas Tech pounded the Aggies 26-9 in Lubbock and the largest margin of defeat for A&M since losing 14-1 to Miami in last year's regional.
No matter the run total, all the victory did was even the best-of-3 Super Regional at a game apiece. A&M won 6-2 on Saturday.
The deciding game, which is for a berth in the College World Series, will be at 6 p.m. on Monday. A&M pitcher Michael Wacha (8-3, 2.10 ERA) will start the game which will be televised on ESPN2.
"We get to play tomorrow, winner take all and we have a good one going on the mound," Childress said. "The most important thing today was Wacha got an extra day of rest and we get a chance to play tomorrow."
The Seminoles wasted little time Sunday as the visiting team, which they will be again in Game 3. FSU batted around and scored five runs off Aggie starter Derrick Hadley (0-1). It might have been worse, but A&M catcher Kevin Gonzalez caught Taiwan Easterling, who knocked in runs four and five with a single up the middle, roaming too far off first base for the third out.
The Noles made it 8-0 by the middle of the third, with Stuart Tapley's long fly ball to left-center field that hit the top of the fence and bounced over for the first of his two homers
"This was just obviously one of those nights where everything went our way, our guys got after it pitch 1 to pitch 380 whatever it was," FSU coach Mike Martin said. "[The win] was big but we know nothing is settled. [Monday] night is what it's all about."
The Aggies tried to make a game of it in the third, thanks in part to the Seminole pitchers being unable to find the plate.
Down 8-0, Kenny Jackson led off with a walk, Andrew Collazo and Tyler Naquin followed with bloop singles to load the bases.
Krey Bratsen walked to get the Aggies on the board and end FSU starter Mike McGee's day.
Scott Sitz entered and gave up a sacrifice fly to Matt Juengel and then Jacob House singled sharply to left field to bring home Collazo.
"I thought we made them nervous a couple of times with the six-run third, but that was probably about it," said Childress.
Adam Smith walked to load the bases again and Brandon Wood, who had the big hit in Game 1, was the first in the series to hit the 30-foot high chain link fence in right field. The double scored House and Smith, making it 8-6.
"We started that rally and I got to first and I told coach [Mike] Clement, 'why don't we have a little fun here, win or lose? What do we have to lose? What else can happen, and we score six runs and we were back in the game,'" Collazo said. "I felt we [competed] the whole game but you've got to give Florida State credit."
Sitz (4-2) shut down the Aggies in the fourth through sixth innings and got the win despite an unflattering line of five earned runs in four innings.
"The guy they brought out of the bullpen, Sitz, I'm sure they didn't know what they were going to get right there, but he did a really nice job for them and allowed them to build on that lead," said Childress.
Florida State answered A&M's six-run inning with two in the fourth. Jayce Boyd, who was 4 for 4 and had five runs and three RBIs, doubled off Brandon Parrent and Tapley singled off Joaquin Hinojosa to put the Noles up by four.
The Aggies never got closer, although they did get three runs in the seventh and chased Sitz with five hits, the biggest a two-run single by Gregg Alcazar, who gave Gonzalez a rest behind the plate once FSU was up 14-6.
"Stuart [Tapley] said it best, those guys just keep coming at you," said Martin. "Of course, Sitz wasn't able to finish it but credit them because they kept on getting after it."
Still there was no denying the way the Seminoles dismantled the Aggie pitchers, all five of whom gave up at least three runs.
Texas A&M surrendered more runs on Sunday than it did in its first 13 games of the season combined.
Tapley made the defensive play of the game, diving near the left-field line to rob Jacob House of an RBI single in the first inning. Tapley also hit his seventh and eighth homers of the season and had five RBIs.
Shortstop Justin Gonzalez was 2 for 3 with a career-high six RBIs and was part two of back-to-back homers with Tapley in the sixth inning. It was Gonzalez's ninth homer.
The bottom third of the Seminole batting order was a combined 7 of 11 with 13 RBIs.
A&M didn't help its cause defensively, committing four errors, tied for the most in a game this season.
The display caused Childress to comment at the postgame press conference that he had told the players if they had performed well defensively they would have given up only 17 runs instead of 23. He then made sure everyone knew it was a joke, while trying to look at the bright side of the past five hours, which started with an hour-long rain delay.
"One thing [director of baseball operations] Jason Hutchins brought up was 1999 when A&M played Clemson as the same kind of thing happened in the first two games," said Childress. "They have short memories 65 games into the season."
A&M defeated Clemson 20-3 at home in the opener, lost 10-3 and then gained its most recent CWS berth with a 5-4 victory.
"I can go to bed tonight feeling pretty good about our chances tomorrow, we just have to go out and play the game," Childress said.
NOTES -- A&M scored six runs in an inning for the fifth time, the second in the NCAA Tournament, having done it against Wright State. ... The 3-hour, 55-minute game was the longest of the season for the Aggies by four minutes. A&M and Tech went 3 hours, 51 minutes in a 12-inning game. The longest nine-inning game for A&M was 3 hours, 29 minutes at home in a 6-5 win over Florida International. ... FSU's James Ramsey has reached base in all but one of the 64 games the Noles have played and has a 10-game hitting streak. ... FSU had four doubles, giving the Seminoles 18 in five postseason games. ... The four home runs allowed was a season high by the Aggies. TCU had three in a 4-2 win over A&M. ... A&M came back to win from five runs down once and from six runs down twice in the Big 12 Tournament.
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