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The final pitch of the day was inside on Toni Martin’s hands. She fought it off and could only muster a soft popout to Florida State second baseman Devyn Flaherty. It was the last out of a sweep at the hands of the No. 9 Seminoles, who outscored Syracuse 16-3 over two games on Saturday.

FSU (29-6, 16-2 Atlantic Coast) took the first game at Skytop Stadium 7-3 behind six home runs, and it capped off the afternoon with a 9-0 win. The Orange (15-13, 8-10) registered just two hits in the second game and have scored just seven runs over their past four games — all losses.

“Hopefully we can continue to learn and grow,” Syracuse head coach Shannon Doepking said. “But it was a disappointing day for us.”

FSU held a two-run lead heading into the top of the fifth inning in the second game. Kaia Oliver was on the mound for the Orange, pitching well until the Seminoles’ Kiersten Landers worked a full-count walk. Landers stole second on an offspeed pitch in the dirt, and Oliver walked preseason ACC Player of the Year Sydney Sherrill. Two batters later, Kalei Harding knocked a double that cleared right fielder Angel Jasso’s head, scoring both runners. Cassidy Davis added another RBI double to make it a 5-0 game.

The Orange had an opportunity to keep the game close in the bottom half of the inning, but FSU’s Caylan Arnold continued to shut down SU’s offense. Arnold got two easy popouts and struck out Paris Woods, swinging with a pitch high in the strike zone. The redshirt senior pitcher entered the day leading the Seminoles in strikeouts, with 83, the seventh-most in the ACC. She continued that on Saturday, striking out eight Syracuse hitters over five innings, allowing just three runners to reach base and no runs.

Most Orange hitters attacked Arnold on the first pitch, which Doepking said was a point of emphasis going into the series. But Arnold continued to rack up the swings and misses, often on pitches outside of the zone.

SU entered the series with the worst on-base percentage and second-worst batting average in the conference, and the struggles in the batter’s box continued against FSU. Outside of two garbage-time runs in the last inning of the first game, the Orange scored just one run over 12 innings Saturday.

Doepking said postgame that the caliber of the Seminoles’ pitching — which has the second-best ERA in the ACC — forced Syracuse to come in expecting that it wouldn’t be able to put up a large number of runs. This put pressure on SU’s pitching, which couldn’t limit a Florida State offense that hit seven home runs, many of which landed well beyond the outfield fence.

“We didn’t come in here thinking that we’re going to put up 7-8 runs off this caliber pitching,” Doepking said. “For us to have a chance, our pitchers can’t put up seven and eight innings and expect our offense that’s struggled anyways to keep up with that.”

FSU’s Kathryn Sandercock got the nod in the pitcher’s circle for the first game. The Northern Virginia native came into the day ranked fourth in the ACC and in the top 35 nationally with a 1.29 ERA, as well as having allowed only two home runs all season. Neli Casares-Maher was able to get on Sanderock early, hitting her team-leading fifth home run of the season to right-center field. The next two Orange hitters also reached base, but Geana Torres grounded out to end the inning, leaving both runners stranded. Syracuse left a combined 10 runners on base over both games.

“We’ve left a ton of runners on … and we haven’t had the clutch hits that we need when people are on,” Doepking said.

After the opening inning, Sandercock had no problems with SU’s offense and received some run support in the fourth inning. Facing fifth-year ace Alexa Romero, Anna Shelnutt hit her fourth homer of the season well past the evergreen trees behind Skytop Stadium’s outfield fence. Davis followed that up with a solo homer of her own, taking an outside pitch to right field, where it hit the netting just beyond Jasso’s glove, putting the Seminoles up 2-1.

Pitching coach Michael Steuerwald came out to calm Romero down, but Flaherty was able to send another home run over the fence a few batters later. The two-run line drive hit the top of the wall and went straight up in the air before ultimately clearing the fence. Flaherty was halfway to second base before she realized the home plate umpire had signaled it a homer, putting her team up 4-1.

As Sanderock continued to work through SU’s offense, Florida State tacked on three more runs in the top half of the sixth. Flaherty and Josie Muffley both crushed home runs off Romero, forcing Doepking to bring in freshman Jolie Gustave in relief. Gustave was introduced to the game with Landers taking her first pitch out of the park. The Orange fielders could only stand and encourage their pitcher to keep hitting the strike zone, knowing that each run put their struggling offense further out of the game.

Published on April 17, 2021 at 8:27 pm

Contact Connor: [email protected] | @csmith17_