No. 4 Florida State Baseball implodes in late innings, falls at Notre Dame
Florida State freshman Hunter Carns hit a solo home run in the top of the eighth inning to tie the score at 8-8 between the No. 4 Seminoles and Notre Dame on Friday evening.
When that inning finally ended, the Fighting Irish had put up an eight-spot on a beleaguered and bewildered FSU bullpen to take Game 1 of the series, 16-9, in South Bend.
Florida State is now 21-4 overall and 5-2 in the ACC.
With the wind blowing out, the game had the feel of one of those famous home-run fests at Wrigley Field. Florida State hit six home runs. Notre Dame hit seven.
The biggest difference was the Fighting Irish had two three-run homers and a two-run shot. Of the Seminoles’ six homers, five were of the solo variety.
Myles Bailey hit two, Cal Fisher hit one, and Alex Lodise hit one in the ninth to go along with Carns’ game-tying shot in the eighth. Only Max Williams’ two-run bomb in the seventh came with anyone on base.
That’s partly because Florida State pitchers walked nine Notre Dame batters on Friday while the Fighting Irish pitching staff issued just one free pass.
The Irish scored two runs off Florida State starter Jamie Arnold in 4 2/3 innings. The Seminoles’ lefty couldn’t make it out of the fifth inning for a third straight start, but he recorded 14 outs and only allowed two runs. Not exactly A-plus work from the presumed first-round pick, but compared to the rest of the FSU staff on Friday, it was lights out.
Payton Prescott and Maison Martinez, who have been arguably the two most reliable relievers all season for the Seminoles, combined to allow eight runs in 2 1/3 innings of work. Martinez allowed three homers, including the go-ahead shot in the bottom of the eighth, which opened up the floodgates.
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Brady Louck faced one batter in the eighth and walked him, and Ben Barrett came in and gave up five runs while recording just one out. He allowed two homers and two doubles.
Jacob Marlowe was the only FSU pitcher to not allow at least two runs on Friday, and he pitched just 2/3 of an inning.
Notre Dame came into the game with a 1-8 record in ACC play (13-9 overall) and had just a .411 slugging percentage as a team. And yet the Fighting Irish pounded the Seminoles’ staff for 13 extra-base hits in the win.
Lodise, who came into the game with the second-highest batting average in the country, had three more hits for the FSU offense, which also got multiple-hit games from Bailey, Carns, Williams and Gage Harrelson.
Lodise is now hitting .481 on the season.
Because of expected poor weather on Sunday, the Seminoles and Fighting Irish are slated to play a doubleheader on Saturday. First pitch for Game 2 of the series is set for noon.
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