3 up, 3 down: Florida State sweeps Notre Dame in South Bend

Florida State baseball followed up a 1-4 week with a perfect 4-0 record after sweeping Notre Dame on the road, completing the series with a 5-1 win on Saturday.

3 up:

1. Drew Parrish pitched the best game of his young career, throwing an absolute gem against Notre Dame. The freshman went the complete nine innings without allowing an earned run (one unearned run) on 136 pitches. He recorded five strikeouts, while only allowing three hits (all groundouts) and one walk. More impactful, however, was the fact that Notre Dame did not have a leadoff hitter reach base all game. It was a masterful performance that lowered his ERA to 3.69 on the season.
2. Florida State could only muster four hits and two runs through the first eight innings of Saturday’s game, but sophomore outfielder Jackson Lueck was responsible for two of those hits and runs. Lueck hit a two-run home run in the top of the first and followed that up with a single. He also scored two runs in the victory. FSU’s offense is much more dangerous with Lueck in the lineup.
3. This was a much needed week for Florida State, coming off a week in which the team earned the No. 1 ranking before a sluggish 1-4 week. FSU got the wins it was supposed to, going 4-0 this week, including a big road conference sweep of Notre Dame.

3 down:

1. Besides Lueck, the FSU offense was held to just two hits, a single and a home run, through the first eight innings. In total, only two of Florida State’s seven hits went for extra bases. The ’Noles seem to either pitch well and hit poorly, or vice versa, which could play costly as the season goes on.
2. This is just a personal opinion, but in my opinion, there is zero reason why Parrish should’ve been pitching in the ninth inning after already throwing 110+ pitches entering the final frame. Florida State was leading by four and having a freshman throw 136 pitches in an early-season game is something that should never happen. Hats off to the young man on the performance, however.
3. Situational hitting was once again a big down for FSU. The ’Noles were just 1-8 with runners in scoring postion and 1-10 with two outs.

Florida State will try to even the season series with Florida when they travel to Jacksonville for their annual neutral site game Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 6:00 PM.