For the first time in 18 seasons as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Noles dropped their opening conference series. FSU used a superb individual effort by freshman Sean Gilmartin to take Game 1, and proceeded to get pounded the next 2 games. More inside.
I am trying to stay optimistic, I really am. The baseball that we saw from the Noles last weekend, however, was appalling at best. I don't really think I can do justice to it, though, so here are the Box Scores for the series. As before, interestingly bad stuff is red, while promising stats are green.
Score by Innings R H E Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
--------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------
Boston College........ 010 000 000 - 1 3 0 Tyler Holt cf............ 4 0 0 0 0 3 2 0 1
Florida State......... 102 001 00X - 4 8 0 Stephen Cardullo 2b...... 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 0
--------------------------------------------- Mike McGee lf............ 3 2 2 2 1 0 0 0 0
Jason Stidham ss......... 3 0 1 1 0 1 1 3 1
Florida State IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP Stuart Tapley 3b......... 3 0 1 0 1 1 0 3 0
--------------------------------------------- Ohmed Danesh rf.......... 4 1 1 1 0 0 2 0 2
Sean Gilmartin.. 8.0 3 1 1 2 8 26 30 91 Mike Meschke 1b.......... 4 0 0 0 0 2 11 1 1
Jimmy Marshall.. 1.0 0 0 0 0 3 3 3 13 Tommy Oravetz dh......... 2 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0
Rafael Lopez c........... 3 0 0 0 1 0 10 1 3
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Totals................... 30 4 8 4 5 7 27 12 8
Score by Innings R H E Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
--------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------
Boston College........ 552 002 000 - 14 16 2 Tyler Holt cf............ 4 1 2 0 1 1 2 0 0
Florida State......... 301 110 000 - 6 13 1 Stephen Cardullo 2b/3b... 5 0 2 1 0 1 2 2 1
--------------------------------------------- Mike McGee lf............ 3 0 0 0 1 2 3 0 1
Ruairi O'Connor lf....... 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Florida State IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP Jason Stidham ss......... 5 3 3 0 0 0 1 3 3
--------------------------------------------- Stuart Tapley 3b......... 3 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0
Geoff Parker... 1.1 7 9 9 2 2 10 14 51 Sherman Johnson 2b....... 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Mark Peterson.. 0.0 2 1 1 1 0 2 3 15 Jack Posey 1b............ 3 0 2 3 0 0 6 0 0
Tyler Everett.. 3.2 4 3 3 0 4 15 17 59 Mike Meschke 1b.......... 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Kris Castellano 0.1 0 1 1 2 0 0 3 12 Tommy Oravetz dh......... 3 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1
Hunter Scantlin 3.2 3 0 0 0 4 13 13 37 James Ramsey ph.......... 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
D'Vontrey Richardson rf.. 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 2
Ohmed Danesh ph/rf....... 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0
Rafael Lopez c........... 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0
Parker Brunelle ph/c..... 3 0 1 0 0 0 6 1 0
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Totals................... 38 6 13 5 3 8 27 8 8
Score by Innings R H E Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
--------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------
Boston College........ 003 400 023 - 12 16 1 Tyler Holt cf............ 5 2 3 0 0 1 2 0 0
Florida State......... 004 000 001 - 5 7 3 Tommy Oravetz 2b......... 1 1 0 0 4 0 0 1 0
--------------------------------------------- Mike McGee lf............ 5 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0
Jason Stidham ss......... 5 1 1 2 0 0 4 2 3
Florida State IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP Stuart Tapley 3b......... 4 0 1 0 0 3 0 3 0
--------------------------------------------- Mike Meschke 1b.......... 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1
John Gast...... 3.1 6 6 5 4 0 13 20 62 Ohmed Danesh dh.......... 3 0 1 2 1 1 0 0 0
Ben Francis.... 0.0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 Stephen Cardullo 1b/3b... 3 0 0 0 1 1 10 1 1
Brian Busch.... 4.0 6 2 2 2 2 16 19 76 D'Vontrey Richardson rf.. 3 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 2
Jimmy Marshall. 0.2 1 3 3 2 1 2 5 21 Rafael Lopez c........... 2 1 0 0 1 1 4 1 0
Mark Peterson.. 1.0 2 0 0 0 1 5 5 18 Jack Posey ph............ 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2
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Totals................... 33 5 7 4 7 10 27 14 9
Game 1
Game 1 gave some hope to the Seminole faithful, as freshman Sean Gilmartin continued his sensational freshman year with an 8 inning, 8 strikeout, 1 run effort. He was in command the entire time and showed great control of his pitches only walking 2. He also demonstrated great poise after a solo shot by right fielder Barry Butera, retiring the next 12 batters. Offensively, we did not get much going, except for Mike McGee who had a great day at the plate. He hit a HR, a 2B, and drew a walk, reaching home in 2 occasions and driving in 2 more runs. In essence, he was the majority of our hitting, and that's all we needed that day. There's nothing wrong with a pitching duel on a Friday night. The next 2 games, however, we needed more from our bats...
Game 2
There's really only one important fact to note about Game 2. This fact explains why we lost the game 14-6: Our starter, Geoff Parker, lasted 1.1 innings, gave up 7 hits and 9 runs, ALL EARNED. Ouch indeed. It was a miserable, miserable outing by Parker, and really puts in doubt his ability to be "the guy." So far this year Parker has gotten pummeled every single outing he's had, and there is definitely reason to be concerned here. Then again, however, baseball is a streaky sport and he could easily go back to his old form. Do I see it happening any time soon? Not so much. Anyhow, the rest of our bullpen fared comparatively better than Parker, but still not good enough to give us a chance to win the game. I mentioned in the first baseball article that FSU made a habit of allowing 7-8 runs a game but would then put up 14. I then questioned whether we'd be able to keep that up. Unfortunately, I am not so sure we can, especially when they're putting up 14 instead of 8. Although the Seminole bats statistically hit rather well on the day with 13 total hits to BC's 16, we were still unable to make this a game, only driving in 6 runs. Even if we had driven in every single man we left on base (8) it would still only have been a tie game! And even though 13 hits is not bad, the bottom of the lineup is still hitting inconsistently and we had no one step up and deliver the hits when we needed them, except for Jack Posey and Jason Stidham, who both had good days. All things considered, though, I have to put this game on the pitching staff, as 14 runs is unacceptable.
The Rubber Match, Game 3
Remember that last paragraph you just read? Replace 'Geoff Parker' with 'John Gast' and you have the third game. There really just isn't very much to it when you're allowing the kind of runs we allowed this series. Our starter was yet again run out of the building, lasting for 3.1 innings and giving up 6 runs, 5 earned. Although not as disastrous as Parker, it was still not the outing we needed from Gast, especially when the bullpen behind him proceeded to allow 6 more runs. The hitting was even less inspired than before, only mustering 7 hits on the day and not giving us a chance to win the game. The middle of the lineup just did not hit the ball well, and players like Tapley and McGee failed to impress when we needed them to. I am rather concerned that the bottom of our lineup is particularly weak this year and it is putting too much pressure on the 1-5 batters to make something happen. Either way, though, it was a pathetic outing from all aspects of the game. Kudos to Tyler Holt for bouncing back from a lackluster Game 1 to reaching base 6 of his last 9 plate appearances.
What next?
All in all, Boston College dominated us. That stings to type when I am doing baseball coverage, but they did. In our defense BC is a much improved team from last year. Still, though, we should be better than this. Their pitching kept us relatively quiet throughout the series, and that hurts. Their hitting completely tore us up with the exception of Sean Gilmartin's superb outing in Game 1. Make no mistake about it: he is the only reason we did not get swept last weekend. We came into this year expecting a young team, but neither aspect of our game seem to be shifting gears as the season progresses. Between our lack of hitting and our lack of pitching, however, our pitching concerns me the most. We may have become spoiled by our sensational bats the last few years and have unrealistic expectations as to what our hitting will be like this year: 5 runs a game is certainly not impressive but is not the end of the world in a conference series. Allowing 9 runs a game, however, is more concerning. Whatever the reasons are for this sluggish start, Mike Martin better do something QUICK to motivate this team.
On the bright side of things, however, the Noles bounced back by pummeling High Point yesterday. We put up 18 runs and allowed 4. We play them again at 6pm today and I expect much of the same. Although the level of competition is admittedly way down, hopefully this helps the team recover and get ready for their upcoming series against Virginia. I would really rather do previews over reviews, but this team is way too unpredictable for that right now. Hopefully as the season wears on we develop an identity we can win some games with.