3 up, 3 down: Florida State falls in game 2 at NC State

After scoring 16 runs the previous night, Florida State baseball fell to NC State 4-3 on Saturday night.

Three up:

1. The newcomers on the team were the source of the offense (if there was any at all) on Saturday night. Drew Mendoza, Rhett Aplin, and JC Flowers recorded three of the Seminoles’ five hits on the night. Mendoza has brought up his season average to .250 and seems to be getting in the stride of facing collegiate pitching. He and Flowers also each recorded a walk.
2. The bullpen was a plus for FSU as Clayton Kwiatkowski threw 1 ¹⁄₃ scoreless innings in relief, followed by Chase Haney who also threw 1 ¹⁄₃ scoreless innings. Kwiatkowski has been very impressive on the season, lowering his ERA to a minuscule .82 in 11 innings to go along with an 11/2 K/BB ratio.
3. Despite only scoring three runs, Florida State got four leadoff hitters on base, which is a good thing.

Three down:

1. Starting Pitcher Tyler Holton wasn’t his finest, allowing 4 earned runs in 5 ¹⁄₃ innings pitched. However, three of those runs given up were in the first, and the sophomore settled down only allowing one in the next 4 ¹⁄₃ innings. He added six strikeouts and only walked one. This wasn’t an overly terrible start, and seemed to just be an off night for him.
2. The inconsistency in the Florida State offense is just impressive at this point. One night after scoring 16 runs, FSU was held to just three while hitting .250 as a team. This was the third time this season that the team was held to three runs or fewer after scoring at least 11 the night before.
3. The other situational hitting besides leadoff hitting was not so good. FSU was just 1-9 with two outs, 3-11 with runners on base and 0-3 with RISP. The ‘Noles were threatening in the ninth, with runners on first and second with one out, however a Rhett Aplin double play ended the game and any chance at a late comeback attempt.

The teams will play the rubber match on Sunday at 1:00 PM.