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Florida State Blasts Four Home Runs En Route to an 8-3 Win Over Wake Forest
May 21, 2008
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Tape-measure home runs by Buster Posey and Dennis Guinn in the seventh inning propelled No. 2 seed Florida State to an 8-3 victory over seventh-seeded Wake Forest on Wednesday night in the 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Championship at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. Posey, the ACC's leader in batting average, RBI and runs scored, hit two homers against the Demon Deacons to tie Miami's Yonder Alonso for the conference lead with 19. Posey hit a line-drive, two-run homer to left in the sixth inning off starting pitcher Ben Hunter (4-6) that erased a 3-1 Wake Forest lead, then blasted a shot to dead center off reliever Brad Kledzik in the next inning that easily cleared the 420-foot sign and gave the Seminoles a 5-3 lead. After Jack Rye followed with a bloop double to left, Guinn hit his 16th homer of the season, with the ball clearing a grassy seating area for fans beyond the left field fence. FSU added another run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Tyler Holt. Earlier in the game, Stuart Tapley hit his seventh homer of the season for the Seminoles (47-9). FSU starter Matt Fairel (10-2) struck out eight and gave up only four hits in seven innings. After Wake's Allan Dystra hit his 15th home run of the season with a man on in the sixth to give the Deacons (24-30) a 3-1 lead, Fairel retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced.
Florida State will play sixth-seeded Virginia Friday at 5 p.m. Friday in a Division B round-robin game. Wake Forest meets third-seeded North Carolina in the nightcap at 8 p.m. There are two Division A contests Thursday, top-seeded Miami vs. No. 5 Georgia Tech at 5 p.m.; and No. 4 North Carolina State vs. No. 8 Clemson at 8 p.m. Miami beat Clemson 7-1 and Georgia Tech edged N.C. State 10-9 earlier today. Each team plays three games. The team with the best record in each division meets Sunday at 1 p.m. for the league championship title and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Game 3 Notes: Florida State 8, Wake Forest 3 • With tonight's win, Florida State improved its league-leading ACC Championship winning percentage to .679. The Seminoles are now 55-26 with four championships in 16 all-time tournament appearances since joining the league in 1991. • Florida State catcher Buster Posey, the ACC Player of the Year for 2008, registered his 18th and 19th home runs of the season in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively. Posey, who leads the league in total bases with 183, is now 9-for-14 (.643) against the Demon Deacons in 2008 with four home runs, nine runs scored and seven RBI. • Tonight's game was the eighth this season in which the Seminoles have recorded four or more home runs. Florida State, which has registered its most home runs (86) since 1999 this season, has hit multiple home runs in 23 of its 55 contests this year. • Florida State starting pitcher Matt Fairel allowed three earned runs on just four hits over seven innings, and struck out eight while issuing only two walks. Fairel, now 10-2 in 2008, has lasted five or more innings in each of his 14 starts this year, and allowed three or fewer runs in 11 of his 14 outings. • Wake Forest junior first baseman Allan Dykstra put the Demon Deacons ahead, 3-1, with his 15th home run of the year off of Seminole starter Matt Fairel in the top of the sixth inning. The home run for Dykstra was his second of the year off of Fairel, who has allowed just four total home runs during the 2008 season. • The Seminoles are 12-1 in their opening games of the ACC Championship since 1995. Florida State's only opening day loss was a 6-2 defeat at the hands of Virginia in 2006. • Florida State is now 9-3 all-time against Wake Forest in ACC Championship play, and 3-0 since the start of the start of the 2005 tournament. In the last three Championship contests between the two teams, the Seminoles have outscored the Demon Deacons by a combined total of 26-8. -ACC- |
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