No. 14 Baseball Drops Game Two to No. 2 FSU
| 10 #2 FLORIDA ST. 7-1 • 0-0 ACC |
Tallahassee, Fla. • Dick Howser Stadium |
2 |
| Pitching Stats | |||
| W | B. Leibrandt (2-0) | ||
| L | B. Radziewski (0-2) | ||
| Batting Stats | |||
| 2B | |||
| Nogowski, J., Stewart, D., Sansone, J. | |||
| Hernandez, A. 1 (4) | |||
| RBI | |||
| Nogowski, J. 2, Brizuela, J. 4, Stewart, D. 1, Knief, B. 1, Sansone, J. 2 | |||
| Hernandez, A. 2 (8) | |||
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – No. 14 Miami fell behind in the early innings and could not recover, dropping game two of its rivalry series with No. 2 Florida State 10-2 Saturday afternoon at Dick Howser Stadium.
Redshirt junior Bryan Radziewski labored through his outing, giving up five runs in 4.1 innings. Alex Hernandez’ recorded his third multi-RBI game of the season, but it wasn’t enough, as the Seminoles set up a rubber match to be played Sunday at 1 p.m.
“If you walk nine guys against a team as talented as Florida State, you’re not going to win,” head coach Jim Morris said. “I thought it was a tight strike zone. Their pitchers threw strikes, made us swing the bat, and we didn’t.”
The Hurricanes carried momentum from Friday’s series-opening win into Saturday, tagging Seminoles starter Brandon Leibrandt (2-0) for a run in the game’s first inning.
Hernandez’ RBI single split the Seminoles middle infield and scored senior Brad Fieger from second to make it 1-0 in favor of the Hurricanes (5-4).
But Florida State (7-1) struck right back for four runs off Radziewski (0-2) in the bottom half of the inning to take its first lead of the game in front of a crowd of 6,593.
Radziewski walked the first three batters he faced to load the bases with no outs, and nearly worked himself out of the jam. The lefthander retired Brett Knief on a shallow flyout to right and struck out John Sansone for back-to-back outs. But a double down the rightfield line from John Nogowski and a two-RBI single from Jose Brizuela to left made it 4-1 in favor of the hosts.
Hernandez came through for Miami once again in the third, delivering a two-out RBI double to left field to cut into the Florida State lead. With senior Tyler Palmer on second after some heads-up base-running on an error charged to outfielder Ben DeLuzio, Hernandez roped a Leibrandt offering into deep left to make it 4-2.
The double was Hernandez’ team-leading fourth of the season.
But a half-inning later, another RBI single from Brizuela saw Florida State regain a three-run advantage.
Leibrandt kept Miami off-balance and mostly off the scoreboard in his 6.2-inning stint.
“He got ahead of our hitters and he challenged the guys,” Morris said of FSU’s lefthander. “When you do get on, it’s hard to run on him.…he didn’t give us anything. We had to earn everything we got.”
Radziewski did well to recover, allowing just one hit after the tough four-run first. He was relieved in the bottom half of the fifth by freshman Cooper Hammond. Radziewski scattered five strikeouts through his 103-pitch outing, while Hammond set a new career high with1.2 innings in relief.
The Seminoles added insurance runs in the seventh, first on an RBI double from D.J. Stewart and then an RBI single from Knief. Two more runs scored on an RBI double from John Sansone allowed by Thomas Woodrey, while an RBI double from Brizuela off Adam Sargent made it 10-2.
Miami returns to Dick Howser Stadium for the rubber match of the rivalry series Sunday. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
“Every day is a new day,” Morris said. “Tomorrow is 0-0. You have to come out tomorrow and win the series. That’s the bottom line. We have to be ready to play.”
Season tickets to Miami’s 2014 season at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field start for as low as $99, with a Family Plan option (two adult tickets, three youth tickets) covering all home games available for just $199. For more information, visit CanesTix.com or call (305) 284-2263.
