Section B Online

Thursday May 20, 2010

	AT BAT				BALL					STRIKE					OUT						H/E
		1	6			3					2					2					H
				1	2	3	4	5	6		7	8	9	10			RUNS		HITS			E
FSU				0	0	3	1	0	1		1	2	0					8	1	0		2
CU				0	2	0	1	2	0		1	3	X					9	1	7		3

'Noles can't hold off Tiger rally

by Paul Thomas, The Osceola

CLEMSON S.C.—The comeback has been Florida State’s calling card all season long, Thursday night the Seminoles were on the wrong end of a late rally as Clemson scored two in the bottom of the eight to take the series opener 9-8.

Seventh-ranked FSU (39-14, 18-10) took a two-run lead over the 22nd-ranked Tigers (35-19, 16-12) in the top half of the eighth inning. After Jayce Boyd started the inning off with a single to center, Sherman Johnson drove him in with a triple to right center. Johnson would come home to score when Mike McGee grounded out to third, giving FSU an 8-6 lead.

Clemson started their eighth-inning rally with an infield single off the bat of second baseman Mike Freeman. FSU then looked to have caught a break when a hard hit ball off of the bat of Jeff Schaus hit Freeman, instead of runners on the corners, Clemson had one out and a runner on first, But the good fortune was short-lived for reliever Geoff Parker.

After a Kyle Parker double moved Schaus to third, John Hinson drove in Schaus with a single up the middle. Stephen Cardullo made a nice play to stop the ball from reaching the outfield and prevented a run.

After Parker picked Hinson off at first, he gave up a double to Brad Miller to tie the game at eight, Miller would come home to score the winning run on a single from Wilson Boyd.

“You’ve got to take your hat off to Clemson. They got key, two-out hits when they needed them in that eighth inning,” FSU head coach
Mike Martin said. “That was our undoing.”

The loss was the fifth series opening loss in a row for the Seminoles. While Sean Gilmartin did not get the loss, he is still searching for his first win since April 16th against Duke.

Gilmartin went six innings, giving up nine hits, five runs; four earned, and tied career- high nine strikeouts.

“I thought he pitched very well,” Martin said of Gilmartin. “I haven’t looked at the numbers, but I thought he pitched well.’

Offensively FSU was lead by Jayce Boyd, who finished the game 3-for-4 with two solo homeruns. Stephen Cardullo also drove in a pair of runs, and Johnson and McGee each added and RBI.

Boyd hadn’t played since last Friday against North Carolina State, and not only did he impress Martin at the plate Thursday, but he also impressed him with his glove.

“He was very impressive hitter tonight, and played well at first base,” Martin said. “He did a very good job, I’m very pleased with him and we’ll just see how things go tomorrow. They’re throwing a right-hander tomorrow, so we’ll just see what happens tomorrow.”

Tomorrow is all Martin is focuses on. FSU needs to win just one game this weekend to cling the Atlantic division in the ACC outright and earn the number two seed at next week’s ACC tournament.

Despite the way Parker struggled in the eighth, he gave up three earned runs on six hits in the inning to take his first loss of the year to move to 3-1, Martin said he didn’t think about going to closer Mike McGee. He said he won’t dwell on it and is just ready for tomorrow.

“It’s just one of those things you go home and look at the tape and ask yourself some questions, but I think at this point in the season what we have to do is look to tomorrow,” Martin said. “Be ready to go tomorrow, we can’t look back.”

Click here for a complete boxscore

Section B Online Player of the Game:

Jayce Boyd
3-4, 3 R, 2 RBI, 2 HR