TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Closing out the Easton Crimson Classic, the No. 9 Florida State Seminoles took down the No. 11 Alabama Crimson Tide, 5-1 on Sunday. It is the third ranked win for FSU in 2014 and the 21st under head coach Lonni Alameda.
"Outstanding road trip for our program," Alameda said. "We came up here to play some very good postseason teams and very good SEC teams in Auburn and Alabama. Also playing Purdue and Houston was a great challenge for our pitching staff and team in general."
Florida State opened the scoring in the third inning as Alex Powers drew a pinch-hit walk to lead off the inning. Tiffani Brown slapped one to the third baseman that was fielded cleanly, but her attempt to force out pinch runner Bella D'Errico at second sailed into right centerfield. D'Errico would come around to score on the play and Brown ended up on third.
The `Noles would load the bases later in the inning behind two walks to Maddie O'Brien and Victoria East but a strikeout by Ellie Cooper would end the rally.
The Seminoles added three runs in the fourth as Alex Kossoff, Macey Cheatham and Brown loaded the bases on three consecutive singles. A four-pitch walk to Courtney Senas brought in Kossoff to make it 2-0 Florida State.
Two batters later, Bailey Schinella hit a ground ball that should have ended the inning, but the Alabama second baseman was unable to handle the throw and allowed to more runs to score, extending the FSU lead to 4-0.
Briana Hamilton added another run with her third home run of the season to lead off the Seminole fifth inning.
Lacey Waldrop won her 10th game of the season with another solid start for FSU. She finished with four scoreless innings, allowing only one hit and one walk with two strikeouts.
Jessica Nori came in to pitch the final three innings for the save. She surrendered a solo home run to Danielle Richard in the fifth which ended a 19.1 scoreless inning streak over 13 appearances dating back to March 31, 2013. The save was her fourth of the season and ninth of her career. Her nine career saves are the most by a Seminole pitcher in program history.
"Today's effort by Jessica Nori, coming in and closing out the game for us was huge," Alameda added. "And stellar performances all around from Maddie, Lacey, Tiffani and Bri coming out of a little bit of a slump and coming through for us today. Finishing out a tough road trip with a win over a quality team like Alabama is huge for our program. It was a great day."
