Hansen Homers, Orange Come Up Short to FSU

Saturday, April 8

4 PM

Syracuse University

19-13, 0

Florida State

36-1-1, 0

Florida State

Syracuse

4/8/2017 7:24:00 PM | Softball

Box Score Cuse TV: Game Highlights

Orange, Seminoles with 15 hits apiece

SYRACUSE, N.Y. –Alicia Hansen tallied her first home run of the season, as the sophomore hit 3-of-5 on the day and senior Sydney O'Hara was 4-of-5 from home plate, but the Orange (19-13, 3-7 ACC) came up short to top-ranked Florida State (36-1-1, 16-0 ACC), 18-9, in the series opener at Skytop Softball Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

"Defensive miss-ques," head coach Mike Bosch said of today's loss. "We made routine plays - pop up, fly ball, ground ball, that we do every day in practice, and we didn't handle it. As good a team as they are, they made us pay for that. They made us drop off the pop up where we could've had the last out."

Syracuse racked up a season-high 15 hits against FSU, as O'Hara led the way with four. Hansen added three, while the trio of juniors in Sammy Fernandez (2-of-5), Rachel Burkhardt (2-of-4) and Jessica Heese (2-of-2) each had a pair.

Hansen and O'Hara had three and two runs, respectively, while Fernandez, sophomore Bryce Holmgren, Heese and senior Alyssa Dewes had one apiece.

Freshman Alexa Romero (7-5) threw a pair of strikeouts on the day, while fellow freshman Abby Thibodeau notched her first-career strikeout from the circle.

In a lengthy first inning, both squads put up four runs apiece to tie the game. The Seminoles used a run in the top of the third and a game-deciding seven runs in the top of the fourth to go ahead, 12-4, through 3.5 innings of play.

A double from Dewes gave the Orange a hot start in the bottom of the fourth, and an RBI single from Hansen brought Dewes home.

Fellow senior O'Hara followed it with a single of her own and advanced to third off an error and a throw to push Hansen home for the second run of the inning.

With O'Hara at third, a Seminole error allowed junior Faith Cain to reach first and O'Hara to come home to close the gap to five runs, 12-7.

Both teams added a pair of runs in the fifth inning, including Hansen's two RBI homer. Four FSU runs in the top of the seventh inning sealed the nine-run victory for the Seminoles, 18-9.

The pair will be back at Skytop Softball Stadium tomorrow morning for a series-ending doubleheader. Game one will begin at 10 a.m., while game two is set to start at Noon.

"Obviously we want to tighten things up from a standpoint of giving up runs," Bosch said, looking toward tomorrow's games. "If we're going to give up 18 (runs), we're not going to win a lot of games so that part has got to get better."

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