Ninth-seeded Florida State collected 15 hits, including two-run homers by Alex Toral and Reese Albert, to roll past fifth-seeded Virginia,13-3, in the 2022 ACC Baseball Championship opener for both teams Wednesday afternoon at Truist Field.
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The game was halted at the end of eight innings due to the Championship’s “10-run rule.” The lower seed has won four of the five tournament games played thus far.
The Seminoles (33-22) face No. 4 seed Notre Dame (33-13) on Thursday at 3 p.m., with the winner advancing to Saturday’s 1 p.m. semifinal game.
Virginia (38-16) is slated to play its second and final game of this year’s tournament on Friday, when it meets Notre Dame in the 11 a.m. game.
Florida State scored a total of 14 runs last week while dropping four consecutive road games, including a shutout loss to North Carolina in last Saturday’s regular-season finale. But the Seminoles made certain Wednesday’s game played out much differently.
After pushing across a run in the top of the first on Brett Roberts’ RBI double, FSU put six on the board in the third inning. Two-run doubles by Jaime Ferrer and James Tibbs helped open the floodgates, and Toral capped the inning with a two-run homer – his 14th of the season – for a 7-0 lead.
Trailing 9-0, Virginia scored all three of its runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, highlighted by Kyle Teel’s RBI triple and a run-scoring double by Casey Saucke.
But the Seminoles got two runs back on Albert’s first homer of the season in the top of the seventh, and Toral’s two-run single in the eighth gave him four RBI for the day and capped the scoring.
FSU reliever Wyatt Crowell (6-1) pitched the final four innings to earn the win, allowing just three hits while striking out six and issuing no walks. Virginia starter Brian Gursky, the first of seven Cavalier pitchers, suffered only his second loss in nine decisions.
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Chris Graham
