FSU blasts Duke out of ACC tournament
DURHAM– Some of the damage was self-inflicted and a few of it was an absence of execution on the part of Duke’s pitchers.
But there were other parts of Florida State’s 14-7 slamming of the Blue Devils that were merely the Seminoles hitting the ball to locations that hurt.
“I believed sometimes we performed some pretty good pitches in pitcher-advantage counts where they took some off-time swings,” coach Chris Pollard stated on Friday at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
Duke (37-19) was bounced from the ACC competition primarily due to the fact that of an eight-run 3rd inning. That damage came against Owen Proksch, the Blue Devils’ finest starter; and then came versus Gabe Nard, among their best relievers.
All 9 batters had at least one hit for the second-seeded Seminoles (38-13), who will deal with either 14th-seeded Boston College or No. 3 seed UNC on Saturday in a semifinal.
8 of nine Seminoles drove in at least one run. Cleanup player Myles Bailey was 4-for-5 with 4 RBI and two crowning achievement, the second of which was determined at 117.6 miles per hour off the bat.
That ball was tattooed; some others just discovered holes in Duke’s defense.
“You understand, we are the very best team in the ACC in batting average on ball in play defensively. We’re one of the leading 5 in the country, we have been for two years in a row,” Pollard stated. “We invest an excessive amount of time making sure that our protectors remain in the best position.
“However they beat our shifts a lot today and in some cases that just means it’s not your day.”
Through 3 innings, FSU’s lead was 11-2. Duke’s best shot at a comeback can be found in the sixth.
The Blue Devils scored twice, on a single by Jake Berger and a passed ball, both with 2 outs. A walk to AJ Gracia packed the bases for Ben Miller and with the scoreboard reading 12-6, one swing would’ve put Duke within striking distance.
Miller struck out and Duke only had one more batter reach base, in the ninth.
“That punchout of Miller was a big moment in the game,” FSU coach Link Jarrett stated. “Substantial moment.”
In 2 of the first three innings, FSU’s very first 4 batters reached base.
Duke’s troubleshooting was decent in the very first inning; the Seminoles just scored two runs. Proksch notched crucial strikeouts for the very first and third outs.
“I believed in the very first … Owen was a little too ramped,” Pollard said. “We missed out on away when we were trying to go in. We missed out on away when we were trying to go to a four-location with a fastball. That just informs me that he’s having a tough time managing adrenaline there in the very first inning.”
When the Blue Devils scored 2 runs in the top of the second– Noah Murray’s high fly to centerfield got lost in the sun and fell in front of Max Williams— it was a tied game at 2-2.
The Seminoles got a go-ahead home run by nine-hole hitter Jaxson West, his second homer of the season, to retake the lead in the 2nd.
And then the third inning is when Duke could not manage the damage.
Four straight songs chased Proksch from the game; the last one, by Chase Williams, drove in 2 runs. Nard got in and faced seven batters; he gave up one each of a single, double, triple and homer, permitted a walk, hit a batter and got a strikeout (not in that order).
That was it for Nard, with Mark Hindy going into for the final out. The final damage in the 3rd was eight runs on eight hits.
“This baseball game was a combination of two things, Florida State playing well and us playing really badly,” Pollard said. “We’re going to not just practice (Saturday), we’re going to skirmish and it will be spirited and it will be with energy.”