Recap: Canes Drop Game 1, In 13-1 Blowout, To Noles

By: Mike Kaffee, Hurricanes Baseball Reporter

When it comes to rivalry series all bets are off.The Noles of Florida State went on the WARPATH tonight and handed the 5th ranked Hurricanes an embarrassing defeat or should say massacre by the score of 13-1. ACC Pitcher of the Week, Alejandro Rosario who just one week ago pitched 7 innings of one hit ball could not even make it beyond the 2nd with giving up 8 runs on 7 hits. The evening started off with typical Alejandro style, throwing a  fastball down the center at 96 MPH for a strike. From that point on, the Noles quickly carved away with hit after hit with the first 4 batters reaching base and recording the first two runs of the game. Before the dust cleared another run would come across the plate giving the Noles an early 3-0 lead. The first, not only showed faltering pitching, but a defense that was also having issues claiming the 2nd run being unearned on a Vilar error. His would be the first of 3 recorded errors for the night along with a couple of mental errors which you won’t find in the scorebook. Not only was pitching and fielding an issue but hitting took a night off only able to come away with 5 hits and scoring just once after a 15 run/15 hits clinic Wed night against FGCU. This is baseball and tonight Florida State definitely put on a clinic of their own with 13 runs on 14 hits.

The Noles would go with freshman Parker Messick,LH, on the mound who would also bat 5th in their lineup. Him being a LH pitcher should have raised a red flag on how we would do tonight. We have not been able to hit against LH pitching all year and tonight only Gabe and Yoyo being the only RH in the starting 9. Getting a little ahead of myself, but we only able to get one hit by a LH hitter (DC) in the 6.2 innings Messick pitched. The so call double by Alex was a miscommunication between 1st and 3rd and dropped about 20 feet from the plate. That being said, Gino pretty much stayed with the regular crew. 1-7 batting remained the same. Toral batting 6th would be the DH and Gabe 7th playing RF. CDC would moved over to play CF. CJ Kayfus would return to the lineup batting 8th, playing 1st. Dominic Pitelli at short batting 9th. Alejandro Rosario 2-0 on the mound with an ERA of 1.96

Things started going all wrong in the first inning when the 1st four batters reached base (single,double,E4,double) and coming away with 2 runs for their efforts. Ground out followed scoring one more and right away the Noles circling the wagon preparing for the massacre to follow.

Five more runs in the 2nd and that would bring the end of the evening for Rosario before the final two outs recorded. Things became quiet for Jordan Dubberly for the next 3 innings of scoreless ball until the 6th when the Noles added 3 more runs finally breaking their draught helped along with a pair of mental errors of which you won’t find in the scorecard by Pitelli and Vilar. By inning end,the score is stretched to 11 with the Canes still looking for their first score. 

The Canes finally got on the board with a WP bringing home Tony Jenkins after ending his slump, with a single through the middle for only the 3rd hit of the game. Tony’s last hit was in the 2nd game of the  Florida series, Feb 20, where he went 3-5 with 3 RBIs. This would be the first and final run of the game for us, but we were able to pick up two additional singles and for the Noles 2 more runs in the 8th,  before final taps got to be blown. 

Offensively, there was no offense. Overall batting  was .161 with slightly lower,.154, against LH pitching. 10 strikeouts and 0-5 with RISP. No one in multiple numbers with two, really one with an extra base hit (DC) Toral’s double never even made it halfway to the pitcher’s mound. The handwriting should have been seen that nothing was going to go right tonight when Lala got thrown out at home trying to score on DC double to right in the first. Tonight we also  watched the end to several streaks. Vilar going 0-3 ended his 10 game hitting streak. The same with Yoyo going 0-4 ending his streak at 6 games with a hit. Only one streak remains with Lala walking in the 1st now having reached base safely in his last 21 of 23 games. 

Defensively, back to mental and recorded errors in the field. Generous to only come away with just 3 in the books. Pitching also was not one of those shining moments with Rosario recording his first loss of the season.

Fortunately a series is not decided by one game. Although the loss brought the final streak of 6 games in the win column to an end.  Hopefully Mederos will even the series at one and Daniel can finally deliver, coming away with a W and sending the Noles back to the reservation where they belong in defeat.