Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest University
Florida State (ACC Tournament)
Deacons Fall To FSU, 5-2, In ACC Baseball Tournament
5/24/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 24, 2002
St. Petersburg, Fla. - Florida State's Blair Varnes pitched his first complete game of the season and led the No. 1 seeded Seminoles to a 5-2 win over No. 2 Wake Forest in the final game Friday at the ACC Baseball Championship.
Florida State (54-12), the only remaining undefeated team in the tournament, now faces Georgia Tech at 12 noon on Saturday. Wake Forest (44-10-1) will face Clemson at 3:30 p.m. in an elimination game.
Varnes (8-3), who had a perfect game through four innings, gave up only two runs on eight hits. He struck out seven and allowed one walk. Deacon starter Ryan Braun (2-2) took the loss after going 5 1/3 innings and giving up five runs.
Despite Varnes' strong outing, it was Wake Forest who got on the board first.
Jamie D'Antona broke up Varnes perfect game with a single to right center to start the fifth inning. D'Antona advanced to second on a ground out to second by Steve LaFaivre. Following the second out of the inning, Jeff Ruziecki drew a walk to give Wake Forest runners on first and second.
Shortstop Ben Ingold drove a ball down the right field line that was ruled a single after D'Antona scored and Ruziecki was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
Florida State responded quickly with five runs in the top of the sixth.
With one out and Richie Smith on second, Stephen Drew hit a towering shot to right field that barely cleared the fence to give the Seminoles a 2-1 lead.
Tony McQuade followed the home run with a double to left center field and Ryan Barthelemy drove in McQuade with a double down the right field line. Blair McCaleb singled down the right field line to bring in Barthelemy and the evening was over for Braun as Adam Hanson entered the game.
The Seminoles would get one more run in the inning when Tony Richie brought in pinch runner Scott Toole with a sacrifice fly to right center field.
In the bottom half of the sixth, D'Antona drove home Adam Bourassa with a two out single to left field to close the gap to 5-2, but that was as close as the Deacons would get.
The game was the last contest of the tournament that involved undefeated teams and was by far the best played game of the week. Evidence of the quality of play was the amount of time it took for the game to be completed, two hours and 14 minutes, the shortest game of the tournament thus far.
Saturday night's championship game can be seen live on the ACC's regional sports network which consists of Fox Sports Net South, Sunshine and Comcast. First pitch for that game is scheduled for 8 p.m. (ET).
