05-17-2004, 01:14 PM
Quote:Noles end the home schedule with a sweep
by Drew Hankin
The #26 Florida State Seminoles concluded the 2004 home regular season campaign by beating the Duke Blue Devils 6-3 in front of 2,557 fans at Dick Howser Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Stephen Drew and Matt Sauls had three hits each, and Mark Sauls (5-4) picked up his fifth win of the season.
Mark Sauls pitched six innings and gave up only one earned run on six hits, while walking two and striking out four batters. Eddie Cannon earned his first career save with three perfect innings to end the game.
After falling behind 2-0 in the first inning when right fielder Senterrio Landrum scored on a throwing error by Aaron Cheesman, and an RBI single by second baseman Bryan Smith, the Noles cut that lead in half in the bottom of the inning. Drew reached on a infield single and went to third on a botched pickoff when the ball went by the Duke first baseman. Gibbs Chapmen then hit a sacrifice fly to left that scored Drew and made it a 2-1 game.
An inning later, the Noles tied the game when Ryne Malone led off with a walk, and scored when Matt Sauls hit a questionable double down the left field line that appeared to be at least a couple of feet foul. After Sauls went to third on the throw, Dennis Anderson brought him with a sacrifice bunt that gave the Seminoles a 4-2 lead.
Florida State added to their lead in the bottom of the third inning when Cheesman singled up the middle, went to second on a base hit to right by Malone, and scored a single to right by Matt Sauls.
FSU scored again in bottom of the fourth when Bryan Zech walked and scored on Stephen Drew's third triple of the season that gave the Seminoles a 5-2 lead. It was Drew's fifteenth career triple that moved him into second all-time in FSU Baseball history. Drew scored the final run for the Noles when Eddy Martinez-Esteve grounded out to short.
The Blue Devils picked up one final run in the top of the sixth frame when catcher Brian Hernandez was hit by a pitch, went to second on a throwing error by Mark Sauls, to third on a single by Smith, and finally scored on an error by Drew to cut the Nole lead to 6-3.
With the series sweep, the Seminoles improved to 34-19 and 13-8 in the ACC while Duke fell to 23-27 and 7-14 in conference action. FSU wraps up the regular season by traveling to Wake Forest for a three-game series which will begin on Thursday.