The Florida State baseball team was always going to lose a series at some point this season.
It finally happened on Sunday in anti-climactic fashion.
After winning Friday's series opener vs. Wake Forest on a walk-off, the No. 4 Seminoles (25-6, 8-4 in ACC) were blown out in the last two games of the series, losing 17-2 in eight innings to the Demon Deacons (23-10, 8-7) in the rubber match Sunday afternoon after losing the Saturday game 12-0.
It's the team's first weekend series loss of the season after they won their first seven. They're expected to drop out of the top five, possibly top 10, in all polls when they update on Monday.
This game, unlike Saturday's, appeared competitive early on. The Seminoles plated a run in each of the first two innings to stake themselves to a 2-0 lead. In the process, though, they stranded five runners on base in the first two frames, leaving the bases loaded in the first and two in scoring position in the second.
At first, this wasn't a problem as FSU starter Wes Mendes worked three scoreless, no-hit innings to start his Sunday outing. However, that worm started to turn hard in the fourth inning when the Demon Deacons tied the game and then took the lead on a pair of two-run home runs.
Wake Forest then quickly chased Mendes in the fifth inning and plated seven runs in that inning -- five of those with two outs -- to open up an 11-2 lead.
After a few shutdown innings from FSU's bullpen, Wake cemented the remarkably lopsided result and ended the game an inning early with a six-run eighth inning.
Over the final two games of the series, Wake Forest's offense mashed 29 runs on 29 hits across 15 innings. Mendes and Joey Volini were tagged for 14 earned runs over 6.1 innings while the bullpen allowed 12 earned runs over 8.2 innings in the final two games of the season.
Once FSU got into the significant hole in the middle of the game, the bats went silent. The Seminoles managed just two hits over the final five innings at the plate. They finished Sunday's lopsided loss with 11 runners left on base, were 3 for 18 (.167) with runners on base, and 2 for 13 (.154) with runners in scoring position.
Over the whole Wake Forest series, FSU plated seven total runs.
Up Next
FSU begins a week entirely on the road Tuesday with the rubber match of its midweek series with Florida. The deciding game will be played in Gainesville at 7 p.m. and broadcast on ESPN2.
