TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Surpassing the 50-win plateau for the 18th time in program history and fourth season in a row, No. 5 Florida State (50-8) advanced to the 2019 ACC Softball Championship Game with a 2-0 win over Notre Dame (36-16) on Friday at JoAnne Graf Field.
The Seminoles will play in their 23rd ACC Championship Game in program history and are seeking their 17th title, and sixth in a row. Friday’s win marked the second consecutive shutout of the 2019 tournament for the Noles, after FSU posted a 7-0 victory on Thursday against Georgia Tech.
“Defense was outstanding for us tonight,” said FSU head coach Lonni Alameda. “That is something I’ve been so impressed with Meghan (King) on, is that when she’s not missing barrels, she is OK with pitching to defense and comfortable with that part of it. The defense loves playing behind her and they do a great job of it.”
Notre Dame threatened in the top of the first inning as Ali Wester led off with a single to left and Katie Marino followed with a walk. FSU starting pitcher Meghan King induced a double play from the next hitter and ended the inning with a groundout.
Sydney Sherrill put the Seminoles on the board with a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning.
Much like the first inning, the Irish got the first two batters of the second inning on base with a double from Abby Sweet and a bunt single by MK Bonamy, but King retired the next three batters to keep ND off the scoreboard.
Dani Morgan opened the bottom of the second inning with a single to right, stole second, and scored on an RBI single by Rock Benavides to make it 2-0 FSU.
For the third consecutive inning, Notre Dame got the first two runners on base on a pair of singles, but another double play off the bat of Cait Brooks and a fly out ended the threat.
Florida State got runners to second and third with nobody out in the fifth inning as Cali Harrod hit an infield single and Carsyn Gordon drew a walk on a wild pitch by ND. Both were left stranded as the next three Seminole batters were retired.
King (28-5) retired the final seven batters of the game to secure the victory, including a groundball through the right side that was fielded by Elizabeth Mason in right field and the redshirt sophomore fired to first for the out. King gave up six hits over 7.0 innings with two walks and three strikeouts.
The Seminoles will play North Carolina (35-17) in the 2019 ACC Softball Championship Game, which will be held on Saturday, May 11 at 12:00 p.m. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN and links for tickets, the broadcast 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.
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.
