Canes Fall in Game Two at Florida State
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Miami dropped Game 2 of its annual rivalry series with Florida State Saturday night, falling to No. 14 Florida State, 10-1, at Dick Howser Stadium.
Sophomore righthander Evan McKendry allowed just two earned runs and struck out nine, but Miami’s offense could not solve Florida State righthander C.J. Van Eyk, who impressed on the hill.
McKendry scattered six hits and three walks in a 105-pitch effort before departing in front of 5,356 fans.
Freshman Raymond Gil connected on his second home run of the season in the loss.
The Seminoles (31-13, 13-9 ACC) struck for unearned runs in the first and third to take an early 2-0 lead. They padded to the lead with six runs in the final two innings.
In the first, a groundball from Cal Raleigh towards first looked like it would end the inning and strand Mike Salvatore on third.
But the throw from Gil bounced off the glove of McKendry (5-6), allowing Salvatore to score.
In the third, Florida State used small ball to add to the early lead. The hosts got a single from Jackson Lueck, a failed pickoff attempt, a sacrifice bunt and an RBI groundout to double their lead to 2-0.
The Hurricanes (17-25, 10-13 ACC) struggled to string together any offense against Van Eyk (2-0).
The freshman righthander struck out a career-high 10 batters, keeping Miami off-balance for most of the game.
Trailing 1-0 in the second, the Hurricanes had a chance to tie the game when junior Romy Gonzalez was hit by a pitch and freshman Willy Escala sliced a double off the fence in right field to put two runners in scoring position with one out.
But Van Eyk struck out freshman Dylan Cloonan and induced a flyout from redshirt freshman Michael Amditis to keep the Seminoles ahead.
Van Eyk scattered seven hits and one run across 7.1 strong frames.
An RBI double from Rafael Bournigal in the fourth made it 3-0 in favor of Florida State, while an RBI single from Drew Mendoza widened the deficit to 4-0.
McKendry struck out at least nine batters for the fifth time this season and for the second straight start.
Van Eyk did not allow a run until Gil crushed the first pitch of the eighth off the top of the videoboard in left field for his second homer of the spring. He allowed a single to senior Michael Burns and a double to freshman Isaac Quinones before departing, but reliever Clinton Kwiatkowski got two flyouts to strand two runners in scoring position.
The Seminoles padded to their lead with a three-run seventh highlighted by a two-run homer from Drew Mendoza, and expanded their lead with three runs in the eighth.
Burns had his second straight multi-hit game (2-for-4) and reached base for the 16th straight game.
The Hurricanes return to Dick Howser Stadium Sunday for the series finale against the Seminoles. First pitch for the contest, slated for broadcast on ACC Network Extra and WVUM 90.5 FM, is set for 1 p.m.
