Florida State was worn down by the Duke Blue Devils on Friday night, losing 7-1 and extending its losing streak to four games.
Duke will go for the series win at Dick Howser Stadium on Saturday while FSU looks to make Sunday’s game the rubber. With the loss, the Seminoles fall to 24-11 and 8-8 in ACC play.
The Good: Duke’s defense was probably the biggest reason it won Friday night. In contrast to Florida State’s two errors and mishaps, Duke turned three double plays and had a perfect fielding percentage in Friday’s game. Shortstop Zack Kone and second baseman Max Miller highlighted the effort with a combined six putouts and nine assists.
The Bad: Florida State actually finished with a higher batting average than the Blue Devils. The difference was what happened after those batters turned into runners. Florida State hit just 2-for-16 (.125) with runners on base.
The Ugly: The first inning was truly terrible for Florida State. After just three pitches, Duke was on the board. There were two hits into the outfield where the Seminoles mishandled the ball and let a player take another base because of it. Duke took a 3-0 lead with no outs and had two runners on base before FSU starter Cole Sands finally recovered. He struck out back-to-back batters and a fly out prevented any more runs. But in a game where FSU lost 7-1, those first five minutes were too much.
Studs of the Game: Cole Sands recovered from a terrible start and threw for three more innings. In those three, he allowed one other hit, while striking out three batters. Once he started getting his pitches down in the zone, the groundouts followed. Duke’s starting pitcher Adam Laskey was also notable with over six innings pitched and just one earned run. Chris Proctor was the best hitter Friday, notching three hits and three RBIs for the Blue Devils.
Duds of the Game: Cooper Swanson, Reese Albert, and Jackson Lueck were the FSU outfielders for Friday’s game. Every single one of them mishandled a ball in the outfield and let a runner advance to the next base. Mike Salvatore and Lueck were the top of the lineup for FSU and went 0-for-8 combined.
Extra Innings: The aura around the stadiums is pretty incredible. It genuinely felt like a regular game day for football, and the crowd at baseball benefited from the increased fan support. It was almost as packed as for the Florida game earlier in the week.
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