Shannon Doepking first knew her team wasn’t focused in the top of the first inning.

The Syracuse bench, typically rowdy and raucous, was completely quiet. It usually chants during at-bats, shouting “three balls, three balls” or the Jeopardy! theme song. It rallies around teammates with individual cheers. But this time, the bench made little to no noise.

“It was the weirdest thing when it was completely silent,” Doepking said. “That’s how you know nothing good is about to come.”

The Orange proceeded to make countless mistakes in the field and at the plate over the next six innings. Whether it was two errors in the field or not adjusting to Florida State pitcher Meghan King’s arsenal, SU didn’t believe it could compete with the reigning national champions, Doepking said. Following 4.2 perfect innings from King, Syracuse (21-29, 8-14 Atlantic Coast) lost 8-0 to No. 5 Florida State (46-8, 17-5) in only six innings.

Doepking first saw signs of this at batting practice. The Orange struggled to make contact in a session designed for them to practice hitting. Then in the pregame, Doepking watched in bewilderment as the Orange fielders “booted the ball all over the field,” she said.

“Going against a good team like that, we’re going to have to step outside ourselves to do something great,” senior Bryce Holmgren said. “I thought there were some opportunities to do that that we just didn’t take.”

Those opportunities were prevalent and readily available, but the Orange didn’t take advantage. Sophomore Alex Acevedo didn’t dive on a bouncing ball down the first-base line that turned into an RBI double. Sophomore Neli Casares-Maher chose not to leap on a line-drive single in the third inning.

Then, in the fourth, FSU senior Carsyn Gordon tapped sophomore Sophie Dandola’s pitch down the third-base line. Seminoles’ freshman Savannah Parker was in a pickle between third and home. Even with Cali Harrod standing on third base, senior Hannah Dossett, junior Gianna Carideo, and Dandola tried to chase down Parker. But when Carideo threw to third, Dandola wasn’t covering home plate so Parker easily strolled home.

Then, Dossett’s throw home bounced off Parker’s shoulder, allowing Harrod to score as well.

“I haven’t done that in a really long time,” Dandola said. “I think I was just really flustered and didn’t think the whole thing through. It’s something we need to work on.”

Dandola only allowed two earned runs in three innings of relief for sophomore Miranda Hearn. This is her second game after returning from a concussion suffered in a car accident earlier in the season, Dandola said.

But it wasn’t the pitching at fault. Florida State stole four bases and took countless more from errors and pushing singles into doubles.

On the other end, it was the SU offense that couldn’t keep up.

King threw 4.2 perfect innings, with it only ending on a Mayfield groundout-turned-error by the FSU second baseman. The next inning, King allowed only her second baserunner on a hard-hit Holmgren single to center field.

In those 5.1 innings, she baffled the Orange with her backdoor curveball. A right-handed pitcher, she fired a sinking off-speed pitch across the plate and into the body of right-handed batters.

Florida State, knowing Syracuse was only going to start two lefties in Holmgren and sophomore Lailoni Mayfield, moved its outfield and forced Syracuse to hit toward the opposite side of the field. The Seminoles right fielder stood close to the infield in between second and first base, the second baseman right behind second base, and the shortstop played closer to third base.

And yet, Syracuse never adjusted. It continued to stick to its normal game plan and never tried to hit opposite field and expose the glaring gap in deep right field, Doepking said.

“We all knew she was throwing curves,” Carideo said. “She’s going to throw a backdoor curve. She can keep it up in the zone with the riseball. (Alexa Romero) throws the exact same way so we should have practiced with this.”

Following the victory over Cornell on Wednesday, Doepking outlined the plan to compete with Florida State: minimize mistakes and have opportunistic hits. With only two hits and plenty of fielding mistakes, SU showed it wasn’t ready to capitalize on that plan.

As Doepking walked out of the dugout, she had more questions than answers.

“You’re going to ask why we sucked today, aren’t you?” she said. “I’m not going to have any great answers.”

 

Published on May 3, 2019 at 8:18 pm

Contact Adam: adhillma@syr.edu | @_adamhillman