Saturday

Florida State responded with a 19-9 win Saturday night against Virginia Tech. The ninth-ranked Noles used a strong pitching performance from Drew Carlton as well as a late offensive explosion to lead them to victory in front of 6,438 fans at Dick Howser Stadium.

The freshman was dominant in six and a third innings pitched as he gave up five hits, three earned runs, walking just one and striking out nine. At one point Carlton struck out nine of his first eleven batters in the ball game.

The Seminole offense struggled for a while off Hokie starter Aaron McGarity but did tack on a run in the first taking a 1-0 lead via a wild pitch scoring Taylor Walls.

VT was able to finally get to Carlton a bit in the 4th inning with the help up of some poor FSU defense to take a 2-1 lead. The Hokies then added another run in the 5th inning to take a 3-1 lead on the Seminoles.

Florida State tied the game up in the bottom of the 5th inning with a Josh Delph two-run single to left field making the score 3-3.

Virginia Tech re-took the lead in the top of the 7th on a fielder's choice, leading 4-3.

The win moved FSU to 21-7 (8-3 ACC) on the season while the loss dropped the Hokies to 15-13 (6-5 ACC). The rubber match is set for 1 PM tomorrow.

Florida State responded with a five spot in the bottom half of the frame thanks to some bases loaded walks from the VT pitching staff and RBI base hits from Chris Marconcini and Danny De La Calle.

With the Noles leading 8-4 in the top of the 8th the Hokies scratched across three runs to cut the lead to 8-7. The FSU bullpen was awful in the inning and throughout the game and raises a major concern going forward in the season.

Florida State busted the game WIDE open in the bottom of the 8th with 11 runs in the inning to extend the lead to 19-7. To make it short and sweet there were a lot of walks and Seminole base hits in the inning.

VT added a couple of runs off Will Zirzow in the 9th inning for the final score of 19-9.

Friday

Virginia Tech used 10 hits and a great starting pitching performance to defeat Florida State 8-3 Friday night inside Dick Howser Stadium.

The Hokies got on the board quickly in the first inning as Saige Jenco led the game off with a solo blast to left field off Boomer Biegalski.

The Noles answered in the bottom half of the inning via a DJ Stewart RBI single to center field tying the game at 1-1. For Stewart, it was his 26th run batted in this season.

Florida State briefly took the lead in the following inning thanks to a Danny De La Calle solo blast to right field. The "oppo taco" was De La Calle's fourth home run of the season and he continues to be a pleasant surprise in this Seminole line-up.

The lead was short-lived as the Hokies responded with an opposite field home run of their own in the top of the 3rd inning tying the game at 2-2.

Both starting pitchers settled in for the next three frames tossing up goose eggs on the scoreboard. Florida State struggled with Hokie starter Sean Keselica, as the lefty tossed seven innings, giving up four hits and two runs, while walking four and striking out nine.

The Hokies broke the game open in the top of the 7th with a five spot, the big hit in the inning being a two-run double to right field off the bat of Erik Payne. Josh Delph misplayed the liner horribly, taking a bad angle before watching the ball slice over his head and get to the wall bringing in two runs.

Trailing 7-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning the Noles got one run back via a Chris Marconcini RBI double to left-center. However Dylan Busby and Hank Truluck each struck out with runners on 2nd and 3rd and no outs. Josh Delph then popped out to 1st, killing any chance of a rally.

VT tacked on another run in the 9th inning and FSU had nothing doing in the bottom half of the frame to end the game at 8-3.

The loss drops Florida State to 20-7 (7-3 ACC) on the season and improves Virginia Tech to 15-12 (6-4 ACC). Game two is set for tomorrow at 6 PM.