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Florida State baseball got out to a quick 5-0 lead after the second inning and never looked back, defeating Samford 13-4 in the series finale. The ‘Noles sweep of the Bulldogs is its first of the season, and a nice turn around following a midweek loss to USF.
Three up:
1) Drew Parrish made his first collegiate start after Drew Carlton was named FSU’s closer, moving Parrish from the bullpen to rotation. He excelled in his debut, only allowing one run over six innings pitched while striking out six. Most notable were the zero walks Parrish allowed. It is yet to be known if Parrish will continue to be Florida State’s Sunday starter, however this could be a good sign of what is to come from the freshman.
2) The Florida State bats were lively once again, scoring another 13 runs. It was the fifth time this season that FSU scored more than eight runs and fourth time scoring more than 10. In the three games against Samford, the ‘Noles outscored the visitors by a 37-7 margin.
3) After playing Saturday’s game perfect in the field, FSU followed that performance up on Sunday with only one error from Dylan Busby. Albeit that error, Busby played a sensational definitely at third, making multiple diving stops and barehanding a bunt attempt, throwing out the runner at first.
Three down:
1) At the plate, the ‘Noles struggled to avoid the dreaded strike three. In total, FSU struck out nine times at the plate, after coming into Sunday’s game averaging 5.8 strikeouts per game. Four of those nine strikeouts were looking. Florida State did make up for all those strikeouts, walking a total of 12 times.
2) Despite the 13 runs scored, Florida State only accumulated eight hits on the day. Of those eight hits, all but two were singles. FSU was able to take advantage of the three Samford errors to score runs, but against higher level opponents, those two extra base hits won’t bring home wins. Additionally, FSU only hit three fly balls all game.
3) Reliever Alec Byrd came into the eight inning with a comfortable 12 run lead, and gave up three runs, all earned, by the time the frame was complete. His final line over one inning pitched was five hits allowed, three earned runs, and two strikeouts. Bryd has had a rough start to the season, now owning a 15.43 ERA through 2 1⁄3 innings pitched.