2009 ACC Baseball Championship: Florida State Uses Fast Start to Hold Off Miami, 4-2

May 21, 2009

2009 ACC Championship Site

Box Score

DURHAM, N.C. (theACC.com) - Freshman pitcher Brian Busch took advantage of a 4-0 lead spotted to him by the Florida State offense, as the top-seeded Seminoles held off Miami, 4-2, in Game 5 of the ACC Baseball Championship and guaranteed themselves a spot in Sunday's championship game.

Florida State's top three hitters jumped on Miami starter Chris Hernandez in the top of the first. A single by center fielder Tommy Holt started it off and was followed by back-to-back run-scoring doubles by Stephen Cardullo and Mike McGee off "The Blue Monster," the oversized wall that stretches from the left-field line to center field at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

Hernandez retired the next two batters, but designated hitter Tommy Oravetz followed with his seventh homer of the season to give Busch a 4-0 advantage before he ever took the mound.

Miami scored its first run in the fourth inning when catcher Yasmani Grandal singled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Harold Martinez. Two innings later, Grandal hit a massive solo home run off the third balcony of the office building beyond the left field wall, cutting the lead to 4-2.

Busch (6-2) left after six innings, with that two-run lead. He allowed four hits, struck out two and walked two in his 14th start of the season. He was relieved by Geoff Parker in the bottom of the seventh.

Parker struggled in his one inning of action, issuing walks to right fielder Dave DiNatale, designated hitter Ted Blackman and second baseman Scott Lawson to load the bases. Parker survived the inning on an errant pitch that got away from catcher Rafael Lopez. Lopez located the ball and flipped it to Parker, who tagged DiNatale out at the plate for the third out of the inning.

Seminole sophomore lefthander John Gast took over for Parker in the eighth and retired three consecutive batters.

Senior closer Jimmy Marshall pitched a shaky ninth inning for his 10th save of the season. Miami's Hernandez (7-4) suffered the loss.

Miami (36-19) will return to action Friday at noon against Boston College. The Seminoles (42-14) will play its next game Saturday at noon against Georgia Tech and is guaranteed that the spot in Sunday's game.

Notes

FSU's Jimmy Marshall earned his 10th save of the season and 12th in his career. He now ranks in a tie for seventh in the career saves chart at Florida State.

Tommy Oravetz now has seven home runs for the Seminoles this season. Five of which have come in the month of May.

With the win, Florida State snaps a four-game losing streak against Miami on neutral soil and takes the lead in the neutral site series, 5-4.

Florida State has 11 home runs against Miami in four games which is the most against any single opponent for the Seminoles.

Today's FSU-Miami matchup was the second in ACC Baseball Championship history. Florida State evened the series, 1-1 with the win.

FSU is 5-0 this season in the state of North Carolina

The total attendance for the first four games of the Championship is 11,935

There have been seven home runs hit in the four games so far, none have hit the famous "Durham Bull." North Carolina's Dustin Ackley leads the tournament boundary list with two round-trippers.

Game five's duration of 2:53 lowered the Championship average to 2:54