Late rally lifts top-ranked Wake Forest past Florida State to clinch weekend series
No. 1 Wake Forest clinched its weekend series against Florida State with a back-and-forth 7-3 victory at Dick Howser Stadium Saturday afternoon before an announced crowd of 4,074.
Conner Whittaker extended his scoreless inning streak to 14.0 before the Demon Deacons managed to score all seven runs over the final three innings.
Neither team scored over the first five innings, which took just one hour to complete. The Seminoles took a 1-0 lead in the sixth when Jaime Ferrer tripled and scored on Cam Smith’s single.
The Demon Deacons tied it on a solo home run in the seventh inning by Justin Johnson, his 13th of the year. The Noles countered in the bottom of the inning when Colton Vincent reached on an error, Jordan Carrion walked and DeAmez Ross gave FSU a 2-1 lead with a two-out single.
Ross’s hit extended his hitting streak to 12 games, the longest for an FSU freshman since 2013.
Wake Forest took its first lead with a two-run home run in the eighth inning on Whittaker’s final pitch. The sophomore left-hander – and most of Dick Howser Stadium – thought he had struck out Nick Kurtz looking two pitches prior to the lefties 20th home run of the season.
James Tibbs earned his first hit of the weekend with a leadoff home run in the bottom of the eighth against Wake reliever Michael Massey to again tie the score at 3-3.
In the ninth, Wake Forest sent nine batters to the plate and scored four runs on three singles, a walk, two bases-loaded HBPs and an RBI fielder’s choice.
Nander De Sedas and Vincent were recognized pregame in a Senior Day ceremony; the pair has combined to play in 297 games over the last five seasons.
UP NEXT:
Sunday’s series finale between FSU and Wake Forest is set for 1 p.m. on ACCNX.
OF NOTE:
Conner Whittaker ran his scoreless streak to 14.0 innings before a Wake Forest home run in the seventh inning. He pitched 8.0 innings vs. Mercer without allowing a run last weekend.
DeAmez Ross extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a go-ahead single in the seventh inning. It is tied for the 11th-longest hitting streak for a freshman at FSU, and the longest since DJ Stewart’s 17-game run in 2013.
Jaime Ferrer tripled to start the sixth inning, his second of the year. FSU’s 17 triples are Top 20 nationally and the most for the Noles since hitting 18 in 2013. Ferrer leads FSU with 69 hits and has gone hitless in consecutive games just twice in his career, both as a freshman in 2022.
James Tibbs III hit a game-tying home run to start the eighth inning. It was his 15th of the year and 25th of his career.
Titan Kamaka had two hits, including his seventh double. He has eight multi-hit games and was the only Seminole with two hits Saturday.
Nander De Sedas had a sacrifice bunt in the third inning, his team-high fifth of the year.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: No. 1 Wake Forest rallies in final three innings to surge past FSU, 7-3
