In a one game, midweek matchup with Jacksonville University, the bats went cold for Florida State and they reverted back to their old fielding habits leading to the final result --- a 7-3 defeat to the Dolphins.
3 up:
Freshman catcher Cal Raleigh had a breakout performance despite the offensive struggles by the team. The North Carolina native hit his first career home run and added another hit. Behind the plate, he threw out the only Jacksonville runner attempting to steal second after throwing a perfectly placed ball. This season, Raleigh is hitting .333 with 9 RBIs and the one home run he hit today.
Despite the seven runs and 15 hits given up by the Florida State pitchers, the bullpen was not as bad as it looked on paper. After Tyler Holton finished with two earned runs in his three innings, the bullpen came in for six innings of relief, giving up one earned run on a solo home run in the ninth. That solo home run was the only extra base hit given up by the four relievers. This season, the bullpen has gone 29 1/3 innings and have only given up five runs.
The 'Noles showed a little fight in them late, putting together a little rally in the ninth inning by scoring two runs on two hits, however it was too little too late. It took until around the sixth inning for everything to come around for FSU. After that, they did not commit an error on defense, and recorded five of their eight hits on the day as well as all three runs.
3 down:
After a great performance on Sunday, helping Cole Sands get out of his jams, the defense did no favors to today's starter Tyler Holton. The 'Noles committed three errors in the first five innings, and four total which doesn't include some miscues. However, they did go error free in the last three innings. Left fielder Gage West misplayed a ball in left field with two outs in the second, allowing the ball to drop. JU would then go on a rally and put up four runs in the inning. Of the 7 Jacksonville runs scored, Florida State pitchers were only charged for three of them.
When FSU did get runners on base, they could not capitalize off of Dolphin's pitcher Michael Baumann. It was reminiscent of the 'Noles series opener against College of Charleston which they were held to one run after a massive offensive out. Against a dominant pitcher, such as Baumann, the only way to score besides home runs is to string together some base hits. With runners on Base, Florida Sate went 4-20 and when the did get into scoring position, were only able to capitalize on two of 12 chances.
Part of the problem of scoring runs was getting the ball in play. In total, seven of the nine Florida State batters struck out at least once, and were sent back to the dugout nine times in all. They also were not very selective at the plate, walking twice in the first six innings of the game. As stated before, when they did get on, they were not very productive, leaving 10 runners on base.