‘DUNN’ AND DONEFSU’s Jenni fer Dunn named ACC Scholar-Ath lete of the YearPAGE 13

M A Y 1 6 , 2 0 1 1 W W W . F S U N E W S . C O M P A G E 1 4

SCOTT CRUMBLYAssistant Sports Editor

The Florida State base-ball team inched closer to their fi fth division title in the past six years this weekend by taking the fi rst two out of three games from the North Carolina State Wolfpack in a rainy affair in Raleigh, N.C.

Friday night went smoothly—as usual—behind yet another strong effort from the Seminoles’ staff ace, Sean Gilmartin.

The junior from Cali-fornia put in 7.1 innings of work in game one, al-lowing just fi ve hits while striking out nine en route to a 9-4 victory for FSU (39-13, 18-8 Atlantic Coast Conference).

Although Gilmartin was on the mound for all four of the Wolfpack’s (28-23, 11-15 ACC) runs, none of the four were earned.

Florida State’s defense committed four uncharac-teristic errors that led to every N.C. State run on the evening.

“[Gilmartin] was a war-rior,” ’Noles skipper Mike Martin said following the victory. “There’s no two ways about it. We did not

play well behind him, but he kept his poise and kept getting us in the dugout. We never back up from a win, but that was ugly.”

With the win, Gilmartin improved to 9-1 on the sea-son and has not allowed an earned run in his last 15 in-nings on the mound.

Rafael Lopez gave Gil-martin all the run support he needed, blasting two home runs on the game—a leadoff homer in the fi rst followed by a two-run shot in the third—to power the ’Noles offense. The two deep balls were No. 5 and 6 on the year for the senior catcher.

Lopez accounted for three of the Seminoles’ 11 hits on the evening, while Mike McGee and Justin Gonzalez contributed two hits apiece.

Andrew Ciencin and Chris Diaz each had two hits of their own for the Wolfpack.

Saturday’s game was set to begin at 6 p.m., but inclement weather in the area forced offi cials to postpone the contest, set-ting up a double-header on Sunday to round out the series.

Saturday starter Hunter

’Noles take fi rst two from WolfpackFSU takes fi rst two of three from NC State after a rain-delayed Saturday

AL BUZZELLISports Editor

With a season- and pos-sibly even career-defi ning game at stake, Florida

State head coach Lonnie Alameda sent senior Sarah Hamilton to the circle and she came out a winner—in more ways than one.

Hamilton, the local prod-

uct of Chiles High School, delivered Alameda and the rest of the ninth-seeded Seminoles their 11th over-all ACC Championship Sunday afternoon from At-

lanta, Ga., with a 4-1 victory over second-seeded North Carolina.

The Championship vic-tory marked the fi rst time the ’Noles have garnered

championship honors since 2004.

Florida State (30-26) came into their conference championship not the hot-test of teams, while UNC starter, Lori Spingola, was aiming to set a Tar Heel-record for most victories in a season (28).

Losers of fi ve of their past seven overall, FSU il-lustrated they had put their hard times this season be-hind them by putting on a hitting barrage throughout the championship set led by senior Jen Lapicki and freshman Courtney Senas.

“One of our goals of the season, as with every sea-son, was to win another ACC Championship,” Alameda said.

Hamilton, who came into Sunday’s showdown with the Tar Heels (34-21) with just an 18-17 record overall this season, threw a three-hitter, which improved her career record to 69-35.

The Seminoles got on the board fi rst on Champion-ship Sunday when Robin Ahrberg hit a solo shot to give the ’Noles an early 1-0 lead. Senas followed two batters later and drove in Morgan Bullock on a RBI

double.Behind Ahrberg’s blast

and Senas double, Hamilton was in control from start to fi nish, allowing just one Tar Heel to cross the plate, which came in the top half of the seventh inning when Brittany Williams doubled home Paige Williams.

But after regaining her composure, Hamilton set-tled down and struck out the fi nal two UNC batters before being mobbed by her teammates afterward.

Florida State reached the conference fi nale when tournament play opened up Thursday by fi rst out-slugging fi fth-seeded Vir-ginia Tech, 9-2, and then keeping that same theme by waxing eighth-seeded Virginia, 12-5.

Long-distance home runs by Celeste Gomez, Senas and Lapicki highlighted the 12-hit attack as it defeated the Cavaliers in the semi-fi nals, which moved FSU into the Championship game for the third consecu-tive year.

FSU’s hitting barrage propelled 10 unanswered runs between the third and

Third time’s the charm for Seminole softballBehind Hamilton, Florida State wins their 11th overall ACC Championship

JOSH DOLCHINStaff Writer

Before the initial tip-off of the second round series between the Boston Celt-ics and the Miami Heat—an expected heavyweight bout, given the potential to be one of the great-est second-round series since Reggie Miller’s In-diana Pacers squared off

against the New York Knicks—this primetime series boasted six future fi rst-ballot Hall of Fame inductees, two blueprints for super rosters and a re-sulting rivalry founded on hatred, pride, legacy and even mothers.

The matchup was ex-pected to go the distance, complete with hard fouls, heroics and epic high-

lights that would keep us all saying “Did you see that?” not unlike to seeing Avatar in 3D for the fi rst time. NBA Commissioner David Stern was smitten, as was the Heat’s nation of skeptics.

All the scrutiny and dra-ma surrounding the Miami Heat and LeBron James’

Closing argumentsWith his reputation hanging in the

balance after last summer’s ‘Decision,’ LeBron James has taken his talents to the

Eastern Conference Finals

Phil Sears/DemocratFlorida State ace, Sean Gilmartin struck out nine Wolfpack batters in just over seven innings of work on Friday night. The Seminoles had to play the fi nal two games of the three-game set on Sunday afternoon due to incliment weather on Satur-day. Check back with fsunews.com for results from Sunday’s double-header.

Scantling was slated to pitch for the ’Noles as he usually does in game two of a weekend series, but Mike McGee was inserted for Scantling in Sunday’s

fi rst game while Scantling was moved back to throw in game two.

Both teams took advan-tage of opponent errors to get on the board in the

early going Sunday.After singling to right

fi eld in the second inning, Jayce Boyd used an N.C. State throwing error to steal home and record the

game’s fi rst run.Boyd returned the favor

in the fourth when he com-mitted a throwing error in

Caitlyn Haines/FSViewSarah Hamilton (above) came through on Sunday with one of her gutsiest performances as a Seminole, pushing them to their 11th ACC Championship.

ACC

Michigan’s Forcier not transferring

to Miami after allTate Forcier apparent-

ly has called a different kind of audible, this one pertaining to his plans of attending the University Miami. After announc-ing his plans to transfer to the school, the former Michigan quarterback has decided not to enroll, according to the Associ-ated Press.

The Miami Herald

cited an unnamed school offi cial as confi rming Forcier’s change of heart Friday.

Forcier signed an aid agreement with the Hur-ricanes in February after his sophomore season at Michigan. He started 12 games as a freshman, but served as a backup to Denard Robinson in 2010 until being ruled academ-ically ineligible to play in the Gator Bowl.

His departure from Ann Arbor was testy as Forci-er said after signing with Miami that he didn’t want to leave. But he felt that athletics director David Brandon would not allow

him to return. Brandon disputed Forcier’s ver-sion of events.

When he agreed to at-tend Miami, Forcier was expected to compete for the starting job in 2012 with rising sophomore Stephen Morris, who spent this spring chal-lenging incumbent Jaco-ry Harris. The Hurricanes recently signed Memphis transfer Ryan Williams.

What is next for Forci-er is uncertain. He con-sidered Washington, Ari-zona, Kansas State and other schools as destina-tions last winter. A trans-fer to a Bowl Subdivision school, however, would require him to sit out next season. He could play im-

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