FSU baseball run-ruled in finale loss at Duke but still take series

It's for the best that the 10th-ranked Florida State baseball team had already clinched the weekend series at No. 6 Duke entering Sunday's series finale.

Because the final game of the weekend series very quickly turned into a blowout.

The Blue Devils (30-14, 14-10 in ACC) used a 10-run second inning to prevent the Seminoles (34-9, 13-8) from sweeping them Sunday at Jack Coombs Field in Durham, N.C. They parlayed that massive inning into a 16-4 run-rule victory in seven innings over FSU.

In that fateful second inning, Duke brought 13 batters to the plate and faced five different FSU pitchers, plating 10 runs on seven hits, two walks and a hit-by-pitch.

The Blue Devils put an exclamation point on the inning by putting up back-to-back-to-back homers off Noah Short. It's the first time since 2005 that FSU allowed three consecutive home runs.

This strong start for the Blue Devils, who scored 12 runs in the first two innings and 15 in the first four, erased what had been an early 2-0 FSU lead as the Seminoles scored a pair in the first on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly from Marco Dinges.

With FSU's pitching staff so depleted with Cam Leiter and Conner Whittaker still missing from the weekend rotation, the attempted bullpen game in Sunday's series finale was a struggle. Freshman starter Brady Louck lasted just 1+ inning and allowed five runs on five hits.

Andrew Armstrong, Hudson Rowan and Short combined to allow seven runs, all earned, over a combined 0.2 innings before Ben Barrett made his first appearance since March 2 to record the final out and finally end the second inning.

After Ryan Denison worked a scoreless fourth inning before loading the bases in the fifth, Yoel Tejeda Jr. gave the Seminoles the bullpen length they badly needed out to get through the game.

He allowed one run on three hits over 2.2 innings, walking just one batter while striking out five.

The lopsided loss covered up another homer from FSU's home-run leader, James Tibbs III. He hit a two-run homer in the third inning Sunday, his 18th of the season, moving him into a tie for the ACC lead with Virginia Tech's Carson DeMartini.

On the whole, though, FSU's offense wasn't up to snuff either Sunday. FSU worked just one walk in the series finale while striking out 12 times.

FSU gets a much-needed chance to catch its break this week with no midweek game due to it being final-exam week.

The Seminoles are next in action back at Howser next weekend as they host No. 21 NC State (24-16, 12-9 in ACC) for a three-game series which begins Friday at 6 p.m.