03-27-2004, 05:58 PM
Quote:FSU 133 000 201 10 15 2
UNC 010 000 500 6 10 1
W - Cannon (7-1) L - Bakker (2-2) S - James (2)
Noles turn the tables on Tar Heels
by Drew Hankin
After getting pounded in Friday's game, the Seminoles stormed back and took their own early insurmountable lead on Saturday en route to a 10-6 win over the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday afternoon in sunny Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Florida State rocked UNC starter Garry Bakker for seven runs in just 2.2 innings and after a mid-inning lull, continued the hit barrage in the final three frames. Eddy Martinez-Esteve and Ryne Malone both had a double and a homerun, and both went 4-5 in the game. Danny Wardell and Shane Robinson both added two more hits each, with both of Wardell's coming on homeruns.
Eddie Cannon (7-1) picked up the win with 6.1 innings of work. Until the seventh inning, Cannon had surrendered only one run. Brian Schultz had a rougher time, giving up a hit and a walk and two unearned runs. Rhett James picked up his second save of the season, pitching the final 2.1 innings of the game.
Martinez-Esteve gave the Seminoles a 1-0 lead in the first inning with a homerun, his eight of the season.
The fireworks continued in the second inning when Malone singled and scored on Wardell's first blast of the day. Robinson then singled up the middle, moved to second on a walk, to third on a wild pitch, but was thrown out at the plate when Chapman hit a ground ball to first. Sauls was able to score on the play when Tar Hell Chris Ianetta threw the ball away trying to get the twin-killing. The inning ended when Chapman got tangled up with the firstbaseman, apparently twisting his ankle and was tagged out when he fell towards second base. Chapman played the bottom of the inning but was pulled before his next at bat.
North Carolina cut the Seminole lead to 4-1 on a homerun by rightfielder Marshall Hubbard in the bottom of the second.
FSU continued to hit Bakker hard in the next frame when Martinez-Esteve and Aaron Cheesman singled to start off the inning for the Noles. Malone singled in one run before Robinson doubled to left-center to score two more that gave the Seminoles a 7-1 lead.
After three scoreless innings for both teams, Malone made it 9-1 in the seventh inning with a homerun that scored two more runs, and shattered a windshield in the parking lot.
Carolina picked up their second run of the game in the bottom of the seventh with an RBI-single by second baseman Bryan Steed. Schultz then came into relieve Cannon, but after giving up a single to score a run, a walk, and hitting a batter to score another one, he was replaced by James. Two unearned runs then came home on an error on Dennis Anderson at third that cut FSU's lead to 9-6 before James got the final out on a grounder to first.
After James struck out two batters in the bottom of the eighth inning, FSU picked up an insurance run in the top of the ninth on Wardell's second shot of the game that capped the scoring at 10-6.
With the win, the Noles improved to 21-6 overall and 4-1 in the ACC while North Carolina fell to 19-6 and 3-2 in conference. The rubber game of the series is on Sunday at 1:00 with Mark Sauls (2-1. 3.06 ERA) on the mound for FSU against Andrew Miller (2-2, 2.33 ERA) for UNC.
Section B Online Player of the Game:
Ryne Malone (4-5, 3 R, 3 RBI, 2B, HR)