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Kiersten Landers hit a pitch up the middle, and Syracuse center fielder Toni Martin moved to her right and stabbed at the ball to pick it up. She missed, and Landers easily reached second. The next batter walked, and head coach Shannon Doepking opted for Kaia Oliver to get a one-out save.

Instead, Florida State’s Kalei Harding knocked a single through the right side. Landers raced around third and collided with catcher Geana Torres in front of the plate, jarring the ball loose and knocking the wind out of the mid-season transfer. The game was tied, and any momentum Syracuse had to begin the inning on Sunday faded.

In Sunday’s doubleheader against Florida State, a late-inning collapse from the unranked Orange (15-15, 8-12 Atlantic Coast) in game one led to a 13-1 mercy-rule loss in game two against No. 9 FSU (31-6, 16-2). SU’s last win against Florida State was 16 years ago, on March 19, 2005.

Game one went to extras, its second in as many weekends, and fielding woes plagued Syracuse in the top of the eighth. The first game of Sunday’s doubleheader against FSU was Gabby Teran’s 150th consecutive game starting. During that streak, she amassed a 96.6% fielding percentage, including an error-free year through 20 games last season.

But in the top of the eighth, Teran botched a ground ball from Josie Muffley, panicked and quickly rifled the ball wide and to the right of Calista Almer. The error allowed Dani Morgan to score, giving FSU a 3-2 lead it would hold on to.

“When the ball’s on the ground in a spot where we can make a play, we got to be able to make a play on a weekend like this where our pitchers struggled as much as they did,” Doepking said.

Syracuse entered the game with the ACC’s third-best fielding percentage. It was tied with FSU for the fewest errors in the conference, with 22. But Teran’s error wasn’t an anomaly. In the top of the sixth inning in game two, the Seminoles sent 11 batters to the plate.

The sixth inning began with a walk from Oliver. Then, Kaia LoPreste grounded a ball back to the mound. Oliver reached down to grab it, but she wasn’t able to secure the softball in her glove. LoPreste also reached for it, then two runners were on base with no outs. The game was already out of the Orange’s grasp — it was 8-1 — and the “drop dead” time limit was quickly approaching. For travel purposes, Florida State had to end the second game at 2:45, no matter where they were in the course of an inning.

A flyout separated the second error of the inning. But Rebecca Clyde’s miscue loaded the bases. She had trouble corralling a ground ball and attempted to tag out Harding, who was bolting for third base. That proved unsuccessful, and Clyde looked around at the three Seminole baserunners — all of whom were safe.

“I didn’t think we made plays when we had opportunities. Even if they’re tough plays,” Doepking said.

The Seminoles only hit 18 home runs before this weekend. Syracuse’s pitching allowed 13 in four games, many of which sailed far over the trees beyond the outfield fence. One fan said Sunday he was worried about his car sitting just beyond the hill where Skytop Stadium sits. The Orange pitching staff has, for the most part, also kept the ball down, serving up 26 home runs.

After allowing five home runs in her start on Saturday, Alexa Romero gave up two more on Sunday.

The team decided to do a “pitcher by committee” approach for Sunday’s game, Doepking said. In the first inning, Romero found how short her leash truly was. After retiring Landers via a groundout, Sydney Sherrill socked a double through the left-center field gap, Harding crushed a belt-high pitch over the left-center field wall, and Doepking subbed out Romero for Lindsey Hendrix.

Romero’s velocity has been high in previous games, but it was lower this week, Doepking said.

“When your velocity’s not quite where it needs to be, obviously we need to spin it a little bit more,” Doepking said.

Each of the four pitchers SU used throughout the two games allowed a home run, and the defense didn’t do much behind whoever was in the circle to make up for it. Martin fought the sun on fly balls. On one home run, she was standing about 10 feet away from where the ball flew out of the stadium.

After winning nine straight games, Syracuse fell back to .500 overall and finished the weekend four games below .500 in conference play, eighth place in the conference. Doepking said the team looked good, especially in game one, because they had “everything to gain and nothing to lose.”

Doepking said she knows the team can do the little things to win games, that pitchers like Hendrix won’t go from throwing “7 feet off the plate and then coming back over the middle.” But in the last two innings of game one, and in all six innings of game two, they didn’t, and Hendrix didn’t.

“We got sh*tkicked,” Doepking said.

Published on April 18, 2021 at 6:20 pm

Contact Anthony: aalandt@syr.edu | @anthonyalandt