TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Extending their conference winning streak to 29 games, No. 15 Florida State (21-6, 3-0 ACC) closed out the weekend sweep of Virginia Tech (11-15, 1-5 ACC) with a 6-2 win on Sunday afternoon at JoAnne Graf Field.
It is the 32nd sweep in the last 42 ACC series for Florida State, as the Seminoles improve to 110-10 in their last 120 conference games. The Seminoles have won 12 straight over the Hokies, and 18 of the last 19, dating back to 2012.
Kylee Hanson struck out 10 batters for the second-straight game and has reached double digits in strikeouts in four of her last six games. The redshirt senior extended her scoreless streak to 30.1 innings, tossing 6.0 shutout innings with just four hits and one walk on Sunday.
“Winning the series is a big accomplishment and getting the sweep is awesome,” said FSU head coach Lonni Alameda. “We’re still growing as team and that is the fun thing about it right now as we are different every weekend out. There are some little things to tie up and some young kids in different positions that I expect that each at bat and each situation they are going to get better. Wasn’t the cleanest of games, but we got it done and pretty excited about the scrappiness that we had.”
Much like Friday’s series opener, FSU’s Hanson and VT’s Carrie Eberle made it difficult on hitters as neither team got a base hit until Leslie Farris opened up the Seminole third inning with a single. Cali Harrod followed with an infield single and the pair moved up to second and third on a wild pitch. The Noles brought in a pair of runs later in the inning without a ball leaving the infield as Carsyn Gordon had an RBI groundout to first and Sydney Sherrill reached on a fielder’s choice as Harrod slid under the tag at home.
The Seminoles added four more runs in the fifth inning, all with two outs, to extend their lead to 6-0. Sherrill singled through the right side and stole second for her second SB of the game. Cassidy Davis walked and was pinch-run for by Korina Rosario and Anna Shelnutt brought in both runners with a double to right center.
Casas singled up the middle to score Shelnutt and she was pinch-run for by Deja Bush. Bush quickly stole second, but advanced to third and scored on back-to-back wild pitches by VT reliever Jordan Dail.
Virginia Tech did not record a hit off Hanson until a two-out single in the fourth inning by Emma Strouth. For the fifth straight game, Hanson did not allow a runner past second base and improved to 11-3 on the season with a 0.78 ERA.
Cassidy Davis pitched the seventh inning for the Noles and gave up a pair of runs as the Hokies started the inning with three consecutive base hits, including a double by Hannah Jones. The sophomore settled in to retire the next three batters on two groundouts and a strikeout to secure the victory.
The Seminoles will remain at home this week with a doubleheader against Troy on Wednesday, March 21 beginning at 5:00 p.m., before hosting Syracuse in a three-game series on March 23-25. Links for live stats and FSU Softball Radio will be available on the softball schedule page of Seminoles.com.
Admission is free for all regular season home games at JoAnne Graf Field, with reserved premium seating behind home plate available through the Seminole Boosters. For more information on the premium seating, contact Alex Douglas at adouglas2@fsu.edu.
