| Paul Thomas, The Osceola
Video:
Ramsey talks about his clutch hit and Saturday's lineup changes
Video:
Mike Martin discusses Saturday night's win
The fifth-ranked Florida State Seminoles
(38-13, 17-9) rallied to beat North Carolina State (32-19, 12-14)
Saturday night 7-5.
FSU lead 5-3 heading into the eighth inning, but Geoff Parker
surrendered two runs in the top half of the inning to NC State to tie
the game up. After seeing their lead evaporate, Sherman Johnson and Mike
McGee got things rolling for the Seminoles with back-to-back singles in
the bottom of the eighth.
Then James Ramsey drove in Johnson with a third consecutive single, and
McGee scored on a throwing error that occurred after a fielder’s choice
off of the bat of Stephen Cardullo.
McGee walked one and struck out two in the ninth inning to clinch the
win for Florida State and pick up his ninth save of the year, as Parker
earned the win to improve to 3-0..
“I was very pleased with our fight,” FSU head coach Mike Martin said. “I
was very pleased with the way all of our pitchers pitched. Certainly I
was very pleased with our hitters getting good pitches, and getting good
swings. Very pleased, it was a good win for us.”
Things didn’t look good early for Florida State, as starter Brian Busch
gave up three hits, including a three-run homerun in the first inning to
Wolfpack rightfielder Drew Poulk. But Busch settled down after the
first, allowing just one hit in his final 5.1 innings work, finishing
the game with 6.1 innings pitched, three earned runs, two walks, two hit
batter, and four strikeouts.
“I thought that after the first, that Brian pitched as well as he has
all year,” Martin said. “After the first he gives up one hit if I’m not
mistaken, and ended up throwing 100 pitches. So it was a good outing for
him, he got us to the seventh.”
Offensively the Seminole lineup featured a few changes as Sherman
Johnson moved to the second spot in the order, Stephen Cardullo moved to
fifth, Stuart Tapley to seventh, and Sean Gilmartin started at first and
hit sixth.
“It was a little unlike us, but I wanted to see if I liked it,” Martin
said of the lineup changes. “The jury is still out. There were some
things I felt that we could do in the order, and I was very pleased with
the way the young men played.”
The new lineup yielded seven runs on nine hits as Cardullo was 2-4 with
an RBI, Gilmartin and Tapley each added an RBI in their new spots in the
order, and Devon Travis drove went 2-3, driving in two runs.
Right fielder James Ramsey didn’t seem to mind all the shuffling going
on around him as he finished the game 2-4 with a homerun, and two RBIs.
The homerun came in the seventh inning to tie the game, but his RBI
single up the middle in the eight may have been more impressive.
The hit came off of Wolfpack lefty Alex Sogard, who was brought in for
the sole purpose of getting Ramsey out. Martin stuck with Ramsey and
lefty-lefty match-up and it paid off.
“I think that’s encouraging, I think that’s what you want out of a guy
that’s hitting in the middle of your lineup,” Ramsey said of Martin
sticking with him. “It’s something you want. You want the respect of
them bringing in a left-hander, I think that’s definitely a sign of
respect, and it’s a credit to the coaching staff trusting their guys.”
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