TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Even though it is senior weekend in Tallahassee, it was a pair of freshmen in the circle – Makinzy Herzog and Kathryn Sandercock – that led the Seminoles to a victory as No. 6 Florida State (44-8, 15-5 ACC) posted a 3-2 win over Duke (25-29, 11-12 ACC) on Saturday afternoon at JoAnne Graf Field.
Herzog gave up one run on two hits over 4.0 innings with three walks and five strikeouts as she improved to 8-2 on the season. Sandercock tossed the final 3.0 innings to record the first save of her career, posting two strikeouts and allowing three hits and an unearned run.
A fourth-inning solo home run by Duke snapped a streak of 30.2 innings that FSU had not allowed a run to an ACC opponent. It marked the second-longest streak in school history, trailing 34.1 innings in 2012.
“Wins are really important right now, and being able to get them in a variety of ways builds confidence as we are getting closer to the postseason,” said FSU head coach Lonni Alameda. “The game doesn’t know how you are scoring them, as long as you are getting them across the plate. We had some team at bats today and some good pitching performances from our rookies, so these are all good things moving forward.”
Florida State took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second as Elizabeth Mason led off the inning with a triple to left and later scored on an RBI single by Zoe Casas.
The Seminoles manufactured a run in the second inning as Anna Shelnutt drew a leadoff walk and was pinch run for by Deja Bush. A walk by Cali Harrod and a groundout moved Bush to third base, and she scored on a sacrifice fly by Sydney Sherrill.
Duke got a run back with a solo home run by Raine Wilson to lead off the top of the fourth inning.
Casas started the bottom of the fourth with a single and later scored on an RBI double by Harrod to make it 3-1 Seminoles.
The Blue Devils scored an unearned run in the fifth as a pair of singles and a catcher’s interference loaded the bases with one out in the inning, allowing Kristina Foreman to cut the lead to 3-2 with a sacrifice fly to center.
The Seminoles and Blue Devils will wrap up the series on Sunday, April 28 at 12:00 p.m. as FSU softball honors its five senior student-athletes during a pregame ceremony. The game will air on ACC Network Extra and links for the broadcast, tickets and live stats will be available on the softball schedule page of Seminoles.com.
Fans can listen to the FSU softball coaching staff, head coach Lonni Alameda and assistant coaches Travis Wilson and Craig Snider, on their weekly podcast: Coaches and Coffee – The FSU Softball Podcast. Each week, the coaches talk about the current state of the Seminole softball team, chat about NCAA softball from around the country, and have a lot of fun along the way. The podcast can be found on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or directly at our website – fsusoftballpodcast.wordpress.com.
Throughout 2018-19, the Seminoles will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of women’s intercollegiate athletics at Florida State and there are many events and reunions planned for all women’s sports. Head to www.seminoles.com/50th/ for more information that will be updated throughout the year.
Follow Florida State softball on Twitter (@FSU_Softball) and Instagram (fsusoftball), and like our Facebook page (Facebook.com/FSUsoftball) to keep up to date with everything about Seminole softball.
