The #5 ranked Noles take the first game 12-7 Friday night. The #4 ranked Cards win 7-1 Saturday night. FSU takes the rubber game, 16-5 this afternoon.

 

Louisville is now 24-7, 10-5 in the ACC.

 

The Cards host WKU on Tuesday and are in Lexington, Wednesday, to play #21 Kentucky.

Interesting weekend in Tallahassee for the Cards. From the pitching side, only Harrington and Burdi looked good and they both pitched SAT. Harrington was awesome with a very strong slider / curveball and spotted his fastball effectively to hold FSU to 2 hits over 7.2. Burdi was lights out in his 1.1 of work.

 

McKay and McClure (missed his start against UK during the week and pitched 2 innings against FSU) were ineffective and wild. McKay had 3 BB and gave up 10 hits in 4.0 and McClure had 3 BB in 2.0. It's a shame because the offense staked UofL to a big lead and the pitching staff could not hold it.

 

On SUN the troubles continued for Funkhouser. He faced the minimum through 2.1 and then walked the #8 hitter. After a double, Funkhouser recorded a key K that made it look like he might get out of the inning. A WP, 2 BBs and a grand slam later and it had all unraveled. In the 4th, 2 singles and a sac bunt that Tiberi turned into a generously scored single were followed by a K and then a botched pickoff attempt at 2B. Single and another BB and Funkhouser was done. Kid is in a funk (pun intended). Hope he can shake it off. If not, he'll go from a FRI night starter picked in the 1st round of the MLB draft to either a mid-week starter or the bullpen. Henzman didn't fare much better and the rout was on.

 

Sad thing was the matchup looked great for SUN. Funkhouser v. a kid for FSU that had struggled all season. Guess that is why the game is not played on paper.

 

On SAT, the 2-5 hitters (Mann, McKay, Hairston & Tiberi) all had 2 hits and the Cards put up 7 runs.

 

On FRI, Mann & Hairston each had 3 hits while Lyman and Taylor had 2 each to put some pop in the bottom of the order. Fitch, McKay and Hairston all left the yard.

 

Need to get back on track v. WKU and UK this week before the #16 Clemson Tigers come to JPat over the weekend. Will be interesting to see who pitches for the Cards this week. I'd expect McClure on WED v. UK, but not sure who might get the ball on TUE. McDonnell might work a bunch of relievers into the mix.