Seminoles win 2nd ACC title in three years

FSU rallies with five runs in eighth to defeat Tar Heels.

LOUISVILLE, KY. — Drew Mendoza followed Cal Raleigh’s go-ahead RBI hit with his second homer of the game duri ng a f ive - r un e i g ht h inning that rallied Florida State past North Carolina 7-3 on Sunday to clinch its second Atlantic Coast Conference championship in three years.

Mendoza’s seventh homer this season, a three-run shot to right, followed his solo blast to the same area in the seventh that drew the eighth-seeded Seminoles (39-20) within 3-2. His big hit came after Taylor Walls scored on a wild pitch and Raleigh singled to left in the next inning.

Mendoza also atoned for fielding and throwing errors that allowed one of North Carolina’s three second-inning runs.

Alec Byrd (3-2) pitched 11/3 innings for the win as three Seminoles relievers combined to hold the second-seeded Tar Heels (4712) to three hits over the final seven innings.

FSU, which completed a 6-0 run in Louisville over the past eight days, earned the conference’s automatic NCAA tournament bid and awaits seeding when the pairings are announced today.

The Seminoles’ Jackson Lueck was voted tournament MVP.

Mendoza, Raleigh and Matt Henderson each had two hits for the Seminoles.

As if beating the host Cardinals three times wasn’t impressive enough during the Seminoles’ run, FSU also shut down the tournament’s highest-scoring team to win a seventh ACC championship. That was no easy feat considering the Tar Heels had won 18 of 21 coming in and scored 34 runs in the tournament alone, including consecutive 12-4 wins over North Carolina State and Miami to reach the final.

The Tar Heels defeated the Hurricanes 12-4 Saturday night in a semifinal that was delayed for 99 minutes by lightning and rain. Unless it receives an at-large bid today, Miami (31-27) would miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 44 years.

While North Carolina figured to eventually cool off, it seemed to have enough offense early on against FSU.

After Tyler Lynn drilled a 1-1 pitch over the rightfield wall for the first run, Zack Gahagan singled to center and scored on Michael B u s c h ’ s d o u b l e t o t h e left-center gap. Busch then scored when Mendoza first bobbled Brian Miller’s twoout grounder, then overthrew Raleigh at home plate.

North Carolina seemed poised to add more in the bottom of the fourth when it loaded the bases off Andrew Karp. In came Seminoles freshman left-hander Drew Parrish, whose wicked breaking ball helped him strike out the side.

That missed opportunity was part of a seven-inning drought by North Carolina that left an opening for FSU to slowly fight back.

R e g i o n a l s i t e s a r e announced: Sixteen teams representing seven conferences, including Florida State and Florida, will host regionals in the NCAA Division I baseball tournament.

Five ACC teams and four from the Southeastern Conference were chosen as hosts Sunday night.

Each of the host schools are guaranteed spots in the 64-team tournament, with the rest of the field, including the top eight national seeds, and pairings to be announced today.

The ACC hosts are FSU, North Carolina, Louisville, Clemson and Wake Forest. SEC hosts are Florida, LSU, Kentucky and Arkansas.