Florida State' Luke Weaver was nearly unhittable Friday at Boston College.
KINGSTON, R.I. -- Luke Weaver tossed a complete game, one-hit shutout Friday to pace No. 2 Florida State to a 6-0 victory at Boston College in the first game of a doubleheader. The Seminoles scored nine times in the ninth inning to erase a 7-2 deficit in Game 2, finishing with an 11-7 victory capped by John Nogowski's grand slam.
On a very cold afternoon with winds gusts up towards 25 mph throughout the duration of the game, Weaver kept the Eagles offense off-balanced en route to tossing his first career complete game and third by a Seminole pitcher this year. The only hit Weaver allowed was a bloop single to left by Chris Shaw.
“A great performance by Luke Weaver,” Florida State head coach Mike Martin said. “I was very impressed with the way he didn’t complain about the conditions. He went out there and was very professional in his approach. It was a good win for this baseball team.”
Weaver walked two and struck out four. After issuing a one out walk in the third, the junior right hander retired 12 consecutive batters before giving up his second walk with two outs in the seventh. Shaw dropped a bloop single to left on the next pitch, but Weaver responded by getting Joe Cronin swinging on strikes to retire the side.
“It’s something that I have always strived for,” said Weaver on throwing his first career complete game. “Leibrandt and Compton got theirs out of the way this year and I felt left out. But I went out there today just trying to be productive and get groundballs.
“It was one of those games where I’m not going to strike a lot of people out; its tough conditions; it’s cold, its windy and I just had to battle through the whole game.”
The DeLand, Fla., native closed out the game setting down the final seven batters on three strikeouts, a trio of groundouts and a fly out.
“I located today,” Weaver said. “At Clemson, I was attacking the strike zone but left a lot of balls over the plate. Today, it was more of the same except I was locating better. I was getting balls off the plate on two strikes and making them chase. I was throwing the off speed for strikes and getting them to chase that as well. I was just really trying to control myself out there today and not let the factors get the better of me.”
Nogowski and Casey Smit paced the Seminole offense with two hits apiece, while Jose Brizuela, Brett Knief, Hank Truluck, Danny De La Calle and Smit all drove in a run in the win.
BC starter John Gorman suffered the loss (2-4) as he lasted just three innings on Friday allowing four runs on four hits as he walked four and struck out four.
In the nightcap, the Seminoles trailed 7-2 going into the top of the ninth, then scored nine runs on four hits, five walks and a hit-by-pitch sending 13 batters to the plate in an inning that saw Boston College use three different pitchers to get three outs.
Nogowski opened the inning with a single to right center and capped off the scoring in the ninth with a grand slam, taking a 1-0 pitch from John Nicklas (1-2) over the fence in right for his first home run of the season to break a 7-7 tie.
“It was unbelievable,” Nogowski said. “This team is special. Once we got the first guy on in the ninth, their guys struggled to throw strikes. It just worked out. When you have a line-up like that, obviously missing DJ (Stewart) hurts, but we are sitting there just trying to pass it back to the next hitter. It was an awesome win.”
The Seminoles are 21-5, 9-2 ACC. The Eagles are 7-17, 1-10.
