FSU Outlasts Clemson, Bound for ACC Title Game

For the fourth straight season, Florida State is headed to the ACC Championship. In a nail-biting ACC Tournament semifinal on Saturday night, the sixth-seeded Seminoles outlasted No. 2 seed Clemson by scoring a run in each of the final three innings in a 5-4 victory.

Rhett Aplin’s RBI single in the ninth inning broke a 4-4 tie and served as the game-winner. FSU will face Louisville on Sunday for the ACC Championship. The Cardinals topped Pittsburgh, 5-2, in the first semifinal.

The Good: Starting pitchers for both teams proved their worth with their outings on Saturday. Cole Sands was FSU’s choice, while Jake Higginbotham got the nod for Clemson. Both pitchers lasted for over five innings and combined for 16 strikeouts. Sands was especially in rhythm with a career-high 11 of his own. Each gave up a critical home run, but were able to bounce back and stay in the game.

The Bad: Weather plagued the ACC Tournament again on Saturday, with the game being pushed back 90 minutes to a 6:30 p.m. EST start time and the field conditions being less than ideal throughout the contest. It’s always discouraging to see an exciting match-up get preemptively affected by things out of its control.

The Ugly: Florida State tied the game in the eighth inning on a solo home run by Jackson Lueck, but squandered an opportunity to take the lead. With the bases loaded and no outs, Clemson reliever Ryley Gilliam struck out Drew Mendoza and Reese Albert before getting J.C. Flowers to ground out to third. Clemson head coach Monte Lee was also ejected during the inning.

Studs of the Game: Drew Mendoza got the scoring started for FSU with a 2-run home run and added a run scored in the seventh. Jackson Lueck was 2-for-4 with a solo homer and two runs scored. For Clemson, Chris Williams was 3-for-5 with a 3-run home run.

Duds of the Game: Clemson’s Logan Davidson, Patrick Cromwell and Sam Hall were all 0-for-4 with a combined seven strikeouts. FSU’s Mike Salvatore, J.C. Flowers and Reese Albert were all 0-for-4 in the win.

Extra Innings: The weather obviously wasn’t fun. But hey, it could have been a lot worse. The storm could’ve stayed together like originally predicted and significantly impacted the entire tournament. Count your blessings, people.