No. 11 FSU baseball falls apart late, fails to sweep rival Miami

Bryson Moore delivered his part to help Florida State attempt to finish off a sweep of rival Miami Saturday afternoon.

FSU’s offense and bullpen? Not so much.

After rallying for a Thursday win in 11 innings and run-ruling the Hurricanes on Friday to clinch the series, FSU’s attempt at a second comeback win of the series came up short, allowing Miami to salvage a 7-4 win at Dick Howser Stadium Saturday afternoon.

Moore was largely excellent in his final regular-season start. After scattering four hits over three scoreless innings to begin his outing, he held Miami hitless from the fourth into the seventh.

But after Dylan Dubovik snapped that drought with a one-out single in the seventh, Gabriel Milano broke through with a two-run homer to give Miami a 2-1 lead.

Derek Williams and Alex Sosa tacked on back-to-back homers in the eighth off the red-hot Chris Knier to give the Hurricanes some insurance.

It was an undeserving result for a remarkably strong outing from Moore (6-2), who threw a career-high 7 2/3 innings on a day’s less rest than normal, allowing two runs on six hits, striking out two and walking none.

The subpar outing for Knier is a tough way to end a regular season in which he had been in exceptional form. He allowed solo homers to both batters he faced after entering the day with one total run allowed over his prior nine appearances spanning 15 1/3 innings.

For the second time this weekend, FSU took an early lead on a second-inning homer from a catcher. This time, it was Nathan Cmeyla who crushed his fifth homer of the season (and third in his last eight games) to give FSU a 1-0 lead in the second.

FSU had plenty of chances to extend that lead while Moore held the Hurricanes down. The Seminoles put the leadoff runner on base in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings, and also had a one-out baserunner in the sixth.

But each time, the lineup couldn’t manage the big hit off Miami starter AJ Ciscar. They were 2-for-8 with runners on base (.250) and 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position (.167) in his seven innings of work, managing the one run on six hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch.

Miami did break through a bit in the eighth, plating a pair of runs of Nick Robert on Hunter Carns’ RBI single and Cmeyla’s sacrifice fly. But a flyout to left with the tying run at first ended the threat.

The Hurricanes responded with a three-run ninth against Payton Manca and Cole Stokes to extend its lead. After Moore held Miami scoreless through six innings, pushing its scoreless drought in the series to 13 innings, the Hurricanes exploded for seven runs in the final three innings of the season — as many as they had in the first 23 innings of the series combined.

FSU got one run in the ninth on Noah Sheffield’s fourth homer in just his second at-bat in the last two weeks. But that was all they could manage against Miami closer Lyndon Glidewell, who retired five of six batters he faced.

In addition to his homer, Cmeyla accounted for three of FSU’s eight hits and two of its three RBIs, extending his hit streak to 10 games.

Brody DeLamielleure had a double and a single, pushing his hit streak to 17 games.

Gabe Fraser, though, was 0-for-4, personally stranding four of FSU’s six runners the team left on base.

Up Next

With the loss, the Seminoles finish the regular season 38-16 (19-11 in ACC). They’re the No. 3 seed in the ACC Tournament and begin play in the quarterfinals Friday night in Charlotte.