3 up, 3 down: ‘Noles win an ugly one, take series against Irish

Florida State was able to win the series Sunday afternoon after a 7-5 win against Notre Dame. It wasn’t pretty but a team that is struggling will take a win no matter how they come from.

Three up:

• Freshman starter Austin Pollack was not incredibly sharp on Sunday, only 58 of his 101 pitches went for strikes but he kept the ball on the ground and did enough to earn a quality start. The defense behind him wasn’t always helpful but the lefty managed to get out of each jam with the exception of a three run third inning. He finished with 7 hits allowed over 6 innings, walking only 1 with 3 strikeouts.
• Drew Mendoza continues to be the ‘Noles best hitter as he had two more hits on Sunday. He also scored two runs including the go ahead run in the bottom of the seventh when pinch hitter Jared Herron grounded a ball in the infield that was misplayed allowing two runs to come across. Rhett Aplin and Jackson Leuck also had two hits while six different players scored a run for FSU.
• After a terrible start to the week when the Seminoles were blasted by rival Florida on the road and a loss to open the series, they rebounded with back to back wins to take the series. Florida State has not been playing an especially pretty or sound brand of baseball lately but they are remaining competitive in most games. This is important when a team is slumping and what will help them remain a top ten team.

Three down:

• Squandered scoring opportunities, bottom of the first bases loaded and one out Florida State managed to score no runs. In the third inning the ‘Noles had runners on the corners with no outs and scored only one run after a strikeout and a sac fly turned into a double play on a dumb base running error by Rhett Aplin. In the fifth inning, with runners on the corners and one out, JC Flowers delivered a run with a bunt single leaving runners on 1^st and 2^nd and 1 out for the top of the lineup. A weak groundout by Salvatore and a flyout by Derr ended the inning with no further damage.
• Poor defense in the third inning, an error allowed a runner to advance to second and later scored on a double. Passed ball by Raleigh allowed a runner to move to third with one out and later scored on a sacrifice fly. Raleigh had another error in the fourth when he sailed a throw into center field trying catch a runner stealing, luckily the runner did not come around to score.
• The bullpen for the ‘Noles was not effective on Sunday afternoon. Jonah Scolaro pitched for the third day in a row, he allowed a single, hit a batter and a walk before being replaced. Clayton Kwiatkowski promptly walked the first batter tying the game. He did however force the next batter into a come-backer that was turned into a 1-2-3 double play. He returned for the 8^th inning, recorded two outs but allowed two walks and went to a three ball count on all six batters he faced on the day. Connor Grady closed the door on the Irish in the 8th when they were threatening, he did earn the save by pitching the 9th inning, although he wasn’t perfect as he allowed a solo homerun.

Florida State has their work cut out for them this week as they host a ranked UCF for two games.