FSU Baseball: Noles Advance to ACC Semifinals With Two Big Wins
By Ty Ragans
FSU baseball took two games from Louisville last weekend. The Noles parlayed that momentum into a couple of wins and a birth in the ACC semi-finals.
FSU baseball is taking full advantage of the momentum they’ve gained towards the end of the season. The Noles took both games from tops in the ACC Louisville last weekend. FSU followed that up with a thrilling win against Notre Dame to open the ACC tournament and another victory over Louisville to make their way to the ACC tournament semi-finals.
The two victories have the Noles sitting at 37-20 on the season. The long streak of 40 wins looked all but out of reach not too long ago, but is now directly in sight for the Noles. FSU will look for win number 38 when they take on Duke Saturday afternoon.
Notre Dame Recap
FSU baseball was slated to get their ACC tournament started against Notre Dame at 11:00 AM on Wednesday, Mother Nature did not comply. After a three hour rain delay, the game started around 2:00 PM in less than ideal conditions.
The first five innings of the game flew by at a rapid pace with neither offense able to get anything going. From there the game slowed down a bit. Notre Dame’s Nick Podkul plated the game’s first run with a solo homer in the top of the sixth. Notre Dame’s lead was short lived as FSU put up two runs of their own in the bottom half of the frame on a Jackson Lueck home run.
FSU took a 3-1 lead going into the top of the 8th before Podkul blasted his second home run of the game to bring the score to 3-2. FSU decided to then bring in closer, Drew Carlton, who was able to retire the first batter he faced but that was followed by a double off the wall to tie the game at 3-3. Immediately after Notre Dame tied it up, we got a 40 minute rain delay
In the top of the 11th Steven Wells made the play of the day in right field as he camped under the ball on a routine fly and unleashed an absolute rocket to the plate to complete the double play and save a run.
In the bottom of the 12th with two outs and a runner on first, up stepped Jackson Lueck, this time hitting from the right side. Lueck came up big for the Noles and launched a two run walk off home run just over the left field wall, ending a wild opening game and keeping FSU’s ACC championship hopes alive.
Louisville Recap
After sweeping a rain shortened series last weekend in the same city where the ACC tournament is being played, the Seminoles headed back to the diamond on Friday afternoon to face the hometown Cardinals – who happened to be a top five ranked team and the top overall seed in the tournament.
FSU baseball got two runs quickly in the top of the first inning, with Taylor Walls scoring on a wild pitch after getting to third base on a double by Dylan Busby – who would score one batter later when Quincy Nieporte did the same thing. Florida State would get two more runs off the bat of Matt Henderson in the fourth inning.
In the bottom of that inning, the Seminoles got saved by the play of the tournament when, as Louisville had two runners on and the tying run at the plate, center fielder J.C. Flowers made a diving catch in the gap to left center to get the final out of the inning and keep the Cardinals off the board.
It would be more than enough for Tyler Holton, who continued to pitch almost lights out for his ninth win of the season. The lefty went eight innings, striking out 10 while walking just one batter and giving up just one earned run on four hits. Drew Carlton came in and got the Cardinals in order in the ninth inning to seal the 6-2 win.
Duke Preview
Duke baseball has not had a season to remember in 2017, but they have taken care of two ACC powers on their route to the semi-finals of the ACC tournament. The Blue Devils disposed of Clemson by a score of 6-3 on Tuesday and then they took down Virginia in a 4-3 game on Thursday.
The two victories brought Duke’s record to 30-27 on the season. The Blue Devils finished the regular season with a record of 12-18 in the ACC.
The Blue Devils have hit 38 home runs in their 57 games this season. Duke’s top hitter is sophomore outfielder Jimmy Herron with a slash line of .327/.414/.478 on the year. Duke’s power hitter is sophomore Griffin Conine. Conine is batting .299 and has slugged 13 home runs and 56 RBI’s this season.
Duke carries a team ERA of 4.83 on the season and a fielding percentage of .974.
Cole Sands is likely to take the mound for the Noles in this matchup.
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The game begins at 1:00 PM and can be seen on the Raycom Sports network or streamed on Watch ESPN. As always the radio broadcast can be found on 106.1 FM locally and nation-wide on the FSU Game Day app.