Seminoles Rally Twice to Take Series from Hokies

The Hokies headed into this weekend's series with #11 Florida State after winning four of their last five games. The Hokies looked like they were on the way to winning the weekend series on two separate occasions, but the Seminoles made life difficult for the Hokies.

Friday--Virginia Tech 2, Florida State 1
The Hokies started the weekend off on a good note with a win over the Seminoles. With two outs in the 3rd inning, Johnny Morales walked to bring Jake Atwell to the plate. Atwell slugged a triple to bring Morales in and later scored on a wild pitch. The two runs was enough to get Joe Mantiply the win as the lone run surrendered was off a bases loaded walk. The Seminoles shot themselves in the foot by leaving 11 men on base through the course of the game. Atwell came in to pitch the 9th inning and got the save for the Hokies.

Follow the jump for the rest of the weekend series.

Saturday--Virginia Tech 11, Florida State 15
The game was originally scheduled for a midday start, but storms in the area pushed the start time back to 7 pm. After a 2-1 game on Friday, the Hokies and Seminoles combined for 26 runs, 34 hits, and a total of 11 pitchers. In the 1st inning, Ronnie Shaban doubled for the Hokies and was brought in by a two-run HR from Tim Smalling.The Seminoles countered in the 2nd inning with two of their own. In the 3rd, the Seminoles put five runs on the board thanks to a two-run HR from James Ramsey and then a three-run double by Devon Travis.

With the bases loaded in the 4th inning, Jake Atwell single brought in two runs and then a grand slam off the bat of Ronnie Shaban put the Hokies up 8-7. Andrew Rash homered two batters later to push the lead to two runs. With runners on the corners in the 5th, Shaban's double brought in Morales and a wild pitch to Smalling allowed Atwell to score from third. The Hokies' lead was trimmed to 11-8 in the 6th off a RBI-single by Ramsey.

Things fell apart for the Hokies in the 7th inning as a three-run lead vanished thanks to four runs on five hits and an error. The Seminoles added another run in the 8th and then a two-run HR in the 9th pushed the lead to 15-11. The Hokies had a chance to tie it in the 9th as Rash--the team's HR leader--struck out swinging with the bases loaded.

Sunday--Virginia Tech 12, Florida State 18

In the 3rd inning with Devon Travis on base after a throwing error, Sherman Johnson homered for the Seminoles to give them a 2-0 lead. The Hokies' bounced back in the bottom half of the inning as Morales singled and Atwell hit a triple to bring him in. Hilariously enough, Hokies' coach Pete Hughes originally thought that the homeplate umpire called Morales out on the slide and ran to home to argue. Hughes realized his mistake after the umpire talked with him and he got a cheer from the crowd.

Michael Seaborn doubled to bring in Atwell and after two batters in a row hit by a pitch, Seaborn scored on a walk to Tony Balisteri. Matt Blow singled to bring in two and give the Hokies a 5-2 lead. The Seminoles scored a run in the top of the 4th, but again the Hokies answered as Seaborn hit a two-run homerun, Rash hit a RBI-double and later scored on a pickoff attempt. Balisteri scored on a sacrifice fly by Blow to give the Hokies a commanding 10-3 lead.

In the top of the 5th, the Seminoles doubled to start the inning and then scored on a single and then a three-run homerun. Rash hit a homerun in the bottom of the 6th to give the Hokies a 11-6 lead, but the 7th inning was unkind to the Hokies as the Seminoles scored six runs on just three hits in the half-inning. Back-to-back singles and three straight walks gave the Seminoles two runs and then a fielder's choice by Taiwan Easterling, a double by Travis and a sac fly put Florida State up 12-11.

A lead-off triple in the 8th followed by a single scored the 13th run of the game for the Seminoles and with the bases loaded, Easterling's grand slam to left field put the Seminoles up 17-11. Travis scored the final run of the game for the Seminoles later in the inning off a sac fly from Boyd. The Hokies were unable to make a rally of their own, squeaking out one more meaningless run in the 9th inning before eventually falling 18-12.

The Hokies fall to 19-19 overall and 4-14 in the ACC on the season. Florida State improves to 26-10 overall and 11-7 in the ACC.

Hokies next play at East Tennessee State University on Tuesday, then at Maryland this weekend.