Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest University
Florida State
Deacons Fall Short In Extra Innings
3/31/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 31, 2001
Tallahassee, FL - The 24th-ranked Wake Forest baseball team lost 6-5 in 10 innings to 11th-ranked Florida State on Saturday night in Tallahassee, Fla., in a game that saw two ties and four lead changes.
The Seminoles won the game in the bottom of the 10th on a two-out single by Richie Smith that scored John-Ford Griffin. Junior closer Dave Bush (2-3) took the loss for the Demon Deacons who fall to 19-9 overall and 6-5 in the ACC.
In the 10th inning, Bush retired the first two batters before the ACC?s leading hitter, John-Ford Griffin stepped in. Griffin was intentionally walked and moments later, stole second base on a controversial bang-bang play. Then, play was interrupted for several minutes as a streaker made his way across the outfield from the right field corner to left field corner. After order was finally restored, Bush's first pitch to Smith was blooped into shallow right field. With two outs, Griffin was running on contact and scored easily scored from second base.
"It was a game that had a little bit of everything," head coach George Greer said. "We had our chances to win and we couldn't capitalize. That's the most frustrating thing. The good thing about the game of baseball is that we get come right back tomorrow and try again."
The game was a see-saw battle. Wake Forest jumped out two a 2-0 lead in the third inning but Florida State countered with three in the fourth. Carlos Brackley's monsterous two-run home run over the left field wall gave the Deacons a 4-3 lead in the sixth inning.
Trailing by one run in the bottom of the sixth inning, Florida State mounted a rally and loaded the bases with just one out with Griffin, who entered the game hitting around .500, at the plate.
The Demon Deacons turned to Bush, the conference leader in saves. Bush struck out Griffin and pinch-hitter Chris Cole to end the threat with no damage.
Wake Forest tacked on a run in the seventh on Ryan Johnson's single on the line behind third base, scoring Nick Blue. But the Seminoles came back with two runs in the seventh to tie the game at five. The ?Noles loaded the bases with nobody out and scored runs on a sacrifice fly and an infield groundout.
The complexion of the game could have been entirely different but a Demon Deacon and two Seminole baserunners were gunned down at the plate including a FSU's Mike Futrell in the first inning. With two out and a runner on first Ryan Barthlemy doubled off the wall in center field. Futrell tried to score all the way from first but Matt Price played the ball cleanly and Athas fired a perfect relay throw to Aquilante who applied the tag for the third out.
Wake Forest gets another chance against the Seminoles tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 p.m. at Dick Howser Stadium in Tallahassee.
| Wake Forest (19-8, 6-4) | 002 | 002 | 100 | 0 | - | 5 | 10 | 2 |
| Florida State (25-7, 9-1) | 000 | 300 | 200 | 1 | - | 6 | 10 | 1 |
