May 27, 2005
JACKSONVILLE, FL. (AP) - Florida State sophomore pitcher Michael Hyde threw a career-best 7 2/3 innings, limiting a weary Wake Forest team to three unearned runs in the Seminoles 7-3 win Friday night in the Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Tournament at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. The win sends Florida State (50-17) into Saturday's semifinals against Georgia Tech, the 14th consecutive year that the Seminoles advanced to the semis. FSU must win two games against Tech in order to reach Sunday's championship game against the winner of the other semifinal pairing of Virginia and Clemson. Wake Forest, playing its fifth tournament game in four days, ended its season with a 28-30 record. Hyde was touched for two runs on a pair of hits in the first inning, but settled down and scattered seven hits and allowed just one more run over the next 6 2/3 innings. He struck out six and walked one and fell just short of becoming the first FSU pitcher to throw eight innings in a game this year. Florida State took its first lead of the night when it scored three times in the third inning. Following a long home run by Danny Wardell, the Seminoles sandwiched a pair of walks around a double by Jack Rye and scored twice on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by Tony Thomas. Rye's bases-loaded walk in the third added another run and FSU increased the margin to 6-2 with a pair of runs the following inning. Ryne Malone's double brought home the first run and he scored the second when he avoided the tag at home on an infield grounder to short. Rye and Shane Robinson both stroked two hits for the Seminoles. Wake
Forest, which out-hit FSU 10-6 had five players finish with a pair of hits including Ryder Mathias and J.B. Tucker who both had a single and a
double.
Wake Forest starter Kip Byrum (3-2) lasted 2 1/3 innings, allowing just two hits but walking five and permitting four runs to score.
The game marked the end to the careers of seven Wake Forest seniors including Brian Bach, Ben Ingold, Ryder Mathias, Matt Miller, Tim Morley, Jonathan Portnoy and J.B. Tucker. Ingold finished his Demon Deacon career third all-time with 281 hits and fourth all-time with 870 at-bats. Morley finished 11th all-time with 270.0 career innings pitched. Tucker's double in his last career at-bat was his 24th of the season -- ranking fifth all-time in single season Wake Forest history. Tucker led the Deacs this season in home runs (13), doubles (24) and RBI (65). Mathias finished this season with a .318 batting average, 12 home runs and 58 RBI. Miller batted .280 with six home runs and 30 RBIs, including a career best of six earlier in the ACC Tournament against Maryland. Bach also closed his career with one of the gutsiest perfomances in Demon Deacon baseball history. The senior right-hander held George Tech, one of the offensive teams in the country, in check for the better part of eight innings. Portnoy has been immeasurable asset to the Demon Deacon baseball program. The characteristics he laid down will serve as a foundation for future players for years to come. |
In The Polls |
