TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — As part of an eight-run second inning, senior Carsyn Gordon hit the fifth grand slam of her career as No. 3 Florida State (26-2, 1-0 ACC) began ACC play with an 11-1 win in five innings over RV Notre Dame (15-8, 0-1 ACC) on Friday afternoon at JoAnne Graf Field.
The five career grand slams sets a school record and is tied for 11th in NCAA history. Gordon now has 30 career home runs, which sits as fifth-most in Seminole history.
The 11 runs scored by Florida State are the most given up by Notre Dame in a game this season. Of the 19 teams that the Seminoles have played in 2019, FSU has been the team to score the most runs against eight of them – Oklahoma, LSU, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Elon, Lipscomb, Samford and Florida Atlantic.
“We are always excited about ACC play,” said FSU head coach Lonni Alameda. “With the non-conference segment of the season, you play a lot of teams just once and there are doubleheaders, but in conference you are in a three-game series against the same opponent. Winning the series is important and this was a great way to start. Great job from the offense to get us going and from the defense selling out for best pitch and being in position to make some plays.”
Notre Dame took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a double by Katie Marino, a single by Cait Brooks and an RBI groundout by Melissa Rochford.
Leading off the bottom of the first inning, Cali Harrod tied the game with a solo home run to center, her ninth of the season. It was the 12th home run to lead off an inning by the Seminoles this season, matching the 12 leadoff homeruns by Florida State In all of 2018.
It also continued the trend of rarely trailing for the Seminoles, as FSU has trailed in only seven games this season, but three times have tied the game in the next half inning. Overall, Florida State has only had 60 plate appearances where it has been behind.
The Seminoles broke open the game in the bottom of the second as the first six batters reached base before recording an out, including singles by Zoe Casas and Anna Shelnutt, walks by Leslie Farris and Harrod, and capped by a grand slam from Gordon. The inning continued with a single by Elizabeth Mason, an RBI single by Casas and an RBI double by Shelnutt to put the Noles in front 9-1.
Gordon and Sydney Sherrill each walked and stole second base in the bottom of the third inning and scored on a groundout by Mason and an RBI single by Dani Morgan for the 11-1 final score.
Meghan King improved to 13-1 on the season with a 3.0-inning start, allowing one run on three hits with no walks and two strikeouts. Freshman Kathryn Sandercock closed out the game, retiring all six batters she faced, including a strikeout.
FSU and Notre Dame will continue the series on Saturday, March 16 with a game at 1:00 p.m. that will be shown on ACC Network Extra. Links for the broadcast, live stats and ticket information are available the softball schedule page of Seminoles.com.
Fans can listen to the FSU softball coaching staff, head coach Lonni Alameda and assistant coaches Travis Wilson and Craig Snider, on their weekly podcast: Coaches and Coffee – The FSU Softball Podcast. Each week, the coaches talk about the current state of the Seminole softball team, chat about NCAA softball from around the country, and have a lot of fun along the way. The podcast can be found on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or directly at our website – fsusoftballpodcast.wordpress.com.
Throughout 2018-19, the Seminoles will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of women’s intercollegiate athletics at Florida State and there are many events and reunions planned for all women’s sports. Head to www.seminoles.com/50th/ for more information that will be updated throughout the year.
Follow Florida State softball on Twitter (@FSU_Softball) and Instagram (fsusoftball), and like our Facebook page (Facebook.com/FSUsoftball) to keep up to date with everything about Seminole softball.
