Syracuse bullpen struggles in 2 losses against No. 9 Florida State
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Freshman reliever Lindsey Hendrix only needed one more out on Sunday to secure a marquee win over No. 9 Florida State. But FSU’s Kiersten Landers knocked a double into the left-center field gap, putting the tying run in scoring position in the top of the seventh.
Pitching coach Michael Steuerwald came out to talk to Hendrix, but she walked the next batter with a pitch in the dirt and was pulled for Kaia Oliver. Oliver allowed Kalei Harding to single through the right side, and Landers ran through SU catcher Geana Torres and tied the game at 2-2.
The next inning, with a runner on second, second baseman Gabby Teran fielded a grounder cleanly but threw the ball past Calista Almer, allowing the Seminoles (31-6, 16-2 Atlantic Coast) to score. Syracuse (15-15, 8-12) secured its fifth straight loss after leading 2-1. Two hours later, the losing streak was extended to six, as the Orange suffered a 13-1 blowout loss that only lasted six innings due to the mercy rule being invoked. Teran’s throwing mistake, along with two other errors, proved to be costly at home on Sunday.
“When your pitchers struggle as much as we struggled, defensively we got to figure out a way to support them,” head coach Shannon Doepking said postgame. “When the ball’s on the ground and in a spot where we can make a play, we got to make a play.”
Syracuse allowed 16 runs on Sunday, 13 of which were given up by relief pitchers out of the bullpen. Hendrix and Oliver combined to give up the three crucial runs in the first game, and Florida State scored 10 runs in the second game off of three SU relievers. For the second straight day, FSU ensured that one game of the doubleheader wouldn’t see all seven innings played.
Dani Morgan hit two home runs in the second contest, one into left field off Hendrix in the fourth inning and the other into center field against Jolie Gustave in the seventh. Morgan totaled five RBIs on Sunday in game two, leading a Florida State offense that knocked 13 homers this weekend despite entering the series with just 18 over 33 games this season. The Orange walked the Seminoles 21 times, too.
“They hit the sh*t out of the ball,” Doepking said. “(It’s) super hard to defend when we’re putting people on for free and then the ball’s going over the fence.”
After being outscored 16-3 in Saturday’s contests, SU had to find a different pitching approach against the ACC leader, the third-year head coach said. Syracuse opted to pitch by committee, giving each pitcher one time through FSU’s lineup. Alexa Romero — who started once on Saturday — started both games Sunday but allowed three runs in four innings. Romero’s velocity was notably low Sunday, as the power pitcher was throwing in the low 60s instead of her usual spot near 70 mph, Doepking said.
After Harding and Cassidy Davis launched home runs in the top of the first inning in the second game, Doepking pulled Romero for Hendrix. Romero faced just five batters and put SU in a 3-0 hole. Hendrix pitched 2 1/3 innings in relief in the second game, giving up 2-run homers twice before Oliver replaced her. That performance came after Hendrix pitched four innings in the first game and lost.
Hendrix’s struggles with location in 0-2 counts have hurt her, Doepking said.
“She’s got a lot of tools, but she’s also got a lot of learning to do,” Doepking said. “Understanding … when you’re ahead in the count, there’s a little more thought process behind where we need to put some of these balls, not 7 feet off the plate (or) coming back over the middle.”
Oliver has started 11 of the 18 games she’s appeared in this season, including on Saturday, when she gave up nine runs — six of which were earned — over 5 2/3 innings. But Doepking used her out of the bullpen in both games on Sunday, and Oliver took the loss in the first game and allowed three runs over two innings in the second game.
In the sixth inning of the second game, Oliver was unable to field a grounder cleanly, putting runners on first and second base. She left the game with an apparent injury after the play, walking off the field slowly as Gustave came in from the bullpen.
Both runners whom Gustave inherited scored, putting FSU up 10-1 and enabling the mercy rule. Morgan’s 3-run homer off Gustave extended the Seminoles’ lead to 12, and Neli Casares-Maher struck out swinging in the bottom half of the inning. It cemented the Orange’s third straight doubleheader sweep and sixth consecutive loss.
The bullpen’s struggles with walks and home runs, combined with the defensive mistakes, led to two losses against FSU, a team ranked in the top 10.
“When we throw the ball over the middle of the plate, we boot the ball all around, we walk people, it ends up being a really, really quick game,” Doepking said.