Syracuse dominated by Florida State in 3-game series
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After three innings, Syracuse had kept it close with one of the best teams in the nation on Friday afternoon. SU was stuck in a defensive battle, tied 0-0 with No. 6 Florida State, when the game got out of hand.
In the top of the fourth, SU went down 1-2-3 in just six pitches. Yamila Evans struck out swinging on a low and inside pitch, followed up by Kelly Breen and Angel Jasso grounding out on back-to-back pitches. The lifeless offense came back to bite the Orange in the bottom half of the fourth.
With runners on first and second, Kaia Oliver walked Mack Leonard on four pitches, loading the bases. Oliver tossed four balls in a row to the next Seminole hitter, Josie Muffley, who walked in the game’s opening score. That was the first of 10 runs in a circus of an inning for the Orange. Six runs came off of walks with the bases juiced, one from a hit by pitch, one off a sacrifice groundout and only two were the result of actual hits by FSU.
Despite only allowing three hits, Syracuse’s pitching staff combined to walk 11 batters in a 10-0 loss in the series opener. It went on to drop the next two games of the series, 5-1 and 8-0, as Syracuse (7-14, 0-6 Atlantic Coast) was swept by Florida State (24-6, 3-0 ACC) in Tallahassee during its second ACC series of the season. Much like the first conference series in Clemson, the Orange scored just one run across three games.
The fourth inning pitching struggles overshadowed the rest of the game. Syracuse got no-hit by FSU’s Kathryn Sandercock in a contest that only went five innings, due to the Orange getting mercy-ruled. The Syracuse bats were swinging early and often with nothing to show for it, as Sandercock managed to only throw 37 total pitches. She struck out two and only allowed one baserunner in 16 batters faced, issuing a walk to Tessa Galipeau.
Madison Knight took the circle for game two on Saturday, and had a strong start. She forced Kaley Mudge to fly out to right field and got help from a diving putout by Madelyn Lopez to retire Kalei Harding. Knight started slipping when a 3-1 pitch missed low and outside to Katie Dack, and she walked. Then, facing another 3-1 count, Knight went too far inside for another walk, which put runners on first and second.
With Devyn Flaherty at the dish, a low 2-1 pitch squeaked under the legs of Laila Alves, moving the runners to second and third. Flaherty walked on a pitch off the plate that loaded the bases and brought Jahni Kerr up to bat. From the left side of the plate, Kerr roped a low and inside pitch into right field, scoring Dack and Hallie Wacaser for a 2-0 Florida State lead.
Syracuse scored its only run of the series in the third inning. Galipeau smashed a double that bounced just before the right field wall, and Gabby Lantier went on to pinch-run for her. Lantier advanced to third base off an errant pitch from FSU’s Allison Royalty, and after Rebecca Clyde struck out looking, Ryan Starr stepped up to the plate.
Starr worked a full count on Royalty. On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, she drove a bouncing ground ball past a diving Muffley into center field and brought home Lantier for an RBI single, cutting the deficit to 3-1. The hits from Galipeau and Starr were the only two of the game for the Orange, and a two-run fifth inning for the Seminoles put the game out of reach.
The three-game set ended the same way it began, with SU falling victim to the eight-run mercy rule. With trailing 5-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning, Kerr stepped with two runners in scoring position.
Oliver fed Kerr three balls in a row. But Florida State gave Kerr the green light on the 3-0 count, and she took advantage of it. She sent a towering three-run home run into right-center field that ricocheted off the outfield scoreboard. It was the third long-ball of the afternoon for the Seminoles — Wacaser and Harding hit solo shots in innings three and four, respectively.
The lead grew to 8-0, and SU went down 1-2-3 in the top of the fifth, forcing the mercy-rule to take effect and the series to end with a thud.
