Led by a solid effort on the mound from junior Mike Compton, the No. 13 Florida State Seminoles cruised to an 8-4 victory over the UNC baseball team on Thursday night at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

With their second straight loss in pool play, the Tar Heels (33-24, 14-18) are eliminated from contention for the conference crown.

The Seminoles (40-19, 19-13) are now in position to advance to Sunday’s ACC Championship Game thanks to 5.2 stellar innings from Compton (4-3), who gave up just two runs on five hits. Florida State defeated Clemson on Wednesday and is now 2-0 in the tournament.

DJ Stewart and the Seminole offense picked up four runs against Trent Thornton in the first three innings, while their pitching staff kept Carolina in check. (Liz Condo, theACC.com)

DJ Stewart (8) and the Seminole offense picked up four runs against Trent Thornton in the first three innings, while their pitching staff kept Carolina in check. (Liz Condo, theACC.com)

Carolina’s offense–which has consistently been the team’s Achilles’ Heel this season–picked up just one hit through the first five innings.

Throughout that time period Compton shut them down with fantastic control of all his pitches.

“[Compton’s] good. He’s really good,” UNC head coach Mike Fox said. “I mean, Florida State’s always had pitchers that pound the strike zone. If you look at the box score that’s the difference in the game I think. We walk one time, they walk eight.”

Tar Heel Right fielder Tyler Ramirez finally sparked some life into the largely pro-UNC crowd when he hit a triple to kick start a two-run sixth frame capped by RBIs from Alex Raburn and Korey Dunbar.

They added two more tallies on Brian Miller’s two-run single in the bottom of the ninth, but by then it was too little, too late–as Florida State preceded that by putting up three runs in the eighth against the UNC bullpen.

Trent Thornton was up and down for the Tar Heels in his first start since March. (Liz Condo, theACC.com)

Trent Thornton was up and down for the Tar Heels in his first start since March. (Liz Condo, theACC.com)

Junior Trent Thornton (3-7) made the start for UNC and looked impressive, going 5.1 innings on his way to a career-high 10 strikeouts. He surrendered five runs though, four of which came in the first three innings–as the strong Seminole lineup made thunderous contact on the pitches they did connect with.

“It took a little bit for me to get in a groove, but it came down to making pitches in big situations that I wasn’t able to do tonight,” Thornton said. “And that was the difference in the game.”

Florida State outfielders Josh Delph and Ben DeLuzio each had three hits and combined to drive in four of the Seminoles’ eight runs to lead the Seminole offensive charge.

Although the Tar Heels have been knocked out of championship contention, they still have one more game to play as pool play finishes up in Durham.

“Tomorrow means a whole lot to us, the way I think we have to look at it,” Coach Fox said after the game. “I have no idea about what the [NCAA Selection Committee] is thinking or any of that, but I think it’s very important for us to win our last game before the NCAA tournament. If nothing else, just to have a win.”

 

Up Next:

The Clemson Tigers (32-26, 17-15) will be their opponent, with first pitch set for 3 p.m.

The Tigers took two of three games from UNC in their series earlier this season, which was played at Clemson.

Game Notes:

  • UNC falls to 1-10 all time against Florida State in the ACC Tournament.
  • The Tar Heel pitchers combined to strike out 17 Seminoles in the game.
  • First Team All-ACC outfielder DJ Stewart went 1-5 for Florida State, striking out twice against Trent Thornton.
  • Landon Lassiter picked up the first hit of the night for the Tar Heels in the fourth inning, when he tripled out to right field.

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