Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Baseball's 2008 Upset of Florida State Ranked No. 4 Upset in Last 10 Years
2/11/2010 7:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 11, 2010
LEWISBURG, Pa. - With the 2010 Bucknell baseball season just over a week away, it is time to take a look back. This past November, the Yahoo.com NCAA Baseball Blog ranked the Bison's upset of top-seeded Florida State in the 2008 NCAA Tournament as its No. 4 upset of the last decade.
Bucknell advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in program history in 2008. There, the Bison met the Seminoles, the No. 4 team in the country. In the first-round matchup, Bucknell posted a convincing 7-0 victory behind a complete game, six-hit shutout performance by right-hander Mathew Wilson. The win was the first NCAA triumph for the Bison and it ended a streak of 15 consecutive opening-round wins for Florida State.
Dane Grandizio tallied four hits in the contest, while Shawn Hirsch drove in a pair of runs, pacing the Bucknell offense.
For his outstanding pitching performance, Wilson was a unanimous selection to the Tallahassee All-Regional Team. The shutout of Florida State was the record-breaking fifth of his career, while he concluded the 2008 campaign with a 6-1 record, a 3.76 ERA and a career-high 73 strikeouts.
Bucknell, which finished the 2008 season 30-24-2, earned the Patriot League's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament by becoming the first No. 4 seed in league history to win the postseason crown. The Bison defeated Army two games to one in the best-of-three first-round series. They followed that up with a two-game sweep of top-seeded Navy. An Ed Rubbo game-winning single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth clinched the title for Bucknell, which has won four Patriot League Tournament championships (1996, 2001, 2003, 2008).
Bucknell's upset of Florida State was the lone game featuring a Patriot League team in the Yahoo.com NCAA Baseball Blog's top 10. Texas Southern (over Rice), Fresno State (over Arizona State) and Michigan (over Vanderbilt) were the top three upsets. All 10 upsets listed occurred during NCAA postseason play.
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