Florida State baseball upsets top-ranked Wake Forest in final game of series

It came down to the wire Sunday afternoon at Howser

After trailing 3-0 to No. 1 Wake Forest, and at risk of suffering its first series sweep in a month, Florida State clawed back to score three runs in the seventh inning to tie the game.

In the ninth inning, after stranding the Demon Deacon's go-ahead run at third in the top of the frame, a single from Jordan Williams brought Nader De Sedas home to give the Seminoles a walk-off victory over Wake Forest, 4-3.

While FSU has been eliminated from ACC Tournament contention, the team's biggest win of the season gives it momentum going into the rest of the week and into the offseason.

"I'm very proud of the fight of the guys. We've seen that all year," FSU coach Link Jarrett said.

"It came down to J-Will and we're aware of who stick at it in that cage and that guy's down there every day grinding it out. I'm happy he had that moment...It hasn't really clicked for him. He hasn't had a lot of good opportunities and he had a good, simple stroke at that. I'm proud of the way the guys stuck at it."

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Fighting chance

Coming off of Friday's 10-0 loss to Wake Forest, Jarrett talked of how he wanted his guys to match the intensity and aggressiveness the Deacons were putting on the mound. Sunday, while he did end up sufficing two early runs, Jamie Arnold had one of the best outings of the weekend for FSU.

He pitched the bulk of the game, five innings, allowing two runs on five hits, walking one, and striking out six. His early effort kept Wake Forest at bay and give time for the offense to ignite. Jarrett said while he thinks Arnold has some things to work on, he did a nice job.

"We still have to figure out the secondary pitches," Jarrett said. "It's hard to perform at this level if you don't really have a good secondary pitch in play. I thought he started to show a little bit of it, and that's the next facet of his game. Coming up with something you can throw not just with two strikes but in any count."

Up until the sixth inning, it looked like Wake Forest was going to walk away with another win. Seth Keener had a no-hitter going, walking three and striking out seven before he was relieved. Getting him off the mound allowed FSU to get its offense going, getting its first hit of the game off a single from Jame Tibbs.

In the seventh, two doubles and a flyout saw FSU tie the game. The game also had its fair share of dramatics as a Wake Forest coach was ejected from the game, a handful of players were given warnings, and FSU's potential winning run at third was called out after a long review.

After Jordan Carrion was called out at third, the Williams single walked off the game.

"There's a lot of this stuff that goes on," Jarrett said. "There are moments that I didn't think would create so much chirping, but we do see it. Once that starts, on both sides, things start to ramp up and people start looking for a reason to get intense and emotional. There's only one thing you can do to contain that and that's play well."

Finishing out strong

Now out of postseason contention, FSU will play its final games of the season this week, hosting Kennesaw State on Tuesday at 6 p.m. before wrapping up the year at Louisville this coming weekend. The Owls are looking to turn things around as well following a series loss to North Alabama and have now lost seven of their last eight.

Kennesaw State's lone win in that stretch was against Georgia Tech, which is near the bottom of ACC Tournament contention. Louisville has lost seven straight and is in need of at least two conference wins in order to make it into the postseason. The Cardinals will face Northern Kentucky on Tuesday before bringing in the Seminoles.

While FSU isn't going to the ACC Tournament, Jarrett said he wants his young group to keep playing and finish out the year strong.

"We may have the youngest team in the ACC, so we have to play," Jarrett said.

"Every chance we get to play, we need to play. You think about what Jamie Arnold learned today and the play Cam Smith made at the end of the game. Titan Kamka getting at-bats. Tibbs and Ferrerr getting at-bats. They're sophomores. These guys need to play and what do you get out of it? You get moments like this."

First pitch for the Kennesaw State game will be at 6 p.m. and will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra and 100.7 FM.

Note: Jarrett announced post-game that freshman outfielder DeAmez Ross would be out for the rest of the season with a collarbone injury suffered when he collided with the outfield wall.

Jack Williams covers Florida State athletics and prep sports for Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at jwilliams@tallahassee.com or on Twitter @jackgwilliams. 

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida State baseball upsets Wake Forest in final game of series