3 up, 3 down: Florida State baseball no-hits Maine

Three Up:

Pitchers Drew Parrish, Conor Grady, and Chase Haney began Mike Martin’s final season allowing no hits in an 11-0 thrashing of Maine. It was the first opening day no-hitter ever for the Seminoles and just the 10th no-no in program history. Parrish went five innings, allowing just one walk, while striking out five. He was replaced by Grady who went 3, before giving way to Haney for the final frame.

• Young players came to bat big in the season opener. Freshman DH Robby Martin made a huge impact during his Florida State debut, going 3-4 with 5 RBI. In the post-game press conference Coach Mike Martin mentioned his approach to coaching Robby’s batting and said, “When I first saw him hit, I said ‘I don’t know,’ but then the second time I told myself, ‘keep your mouth shut,’ and that’s what I’ve done—that’s a good baseball player.”
• The top of the order set the tone for FSU offensively, going 6-12 with 7 runs and 4 RBI, while adding two BB’s and a HBP. Sophomore OF Reese Albert hit the season’s first home run in the 3rd, a solo blast to right field. He ended the night with 3 RBI.

Three Down:

• Freshman cleanup hitter Elijah Cabell had a rough opening night, going 0-3 with 3 K’s. In the post-game press conference Coach Martin said that “Cabell was struggling a bit during his first at bat and it carried over into the rest of the game. Elijah was just experiencing the first time playing in our ballpark in front of the greatest fans of all of college baseball. He has probably not struck out three times in a game in many many moons.” Cabell did, however, reach base twice via HBP and added 2 SB.
• In what would be FSU’s final game last season, Mike Martin and the coaching staff made a decision to put Drew Parrish back on the mound after he sat threw a two-hour rain delay. Although there was no rain delay Friday night, the staff still could have managed the relief pitching somewhat better. Martin said after the game he didn’t want to put an immense amount of pressure on some of the younger players that didn’t start, and he went on to say he planned to put some of them in “after we allowed the first hit.” That moment, obviously, never came. However, FSU baseball has a history of struggling to find (multiple) reliable arms in the bullpen, so it didn’t make sense to use Grady for 3 innings in a season-opening blowout.
• Despite scoring 11 runs, the Seminoles could have had more, as they left 8 runners stranded (7 K’s vs. 2 BB’s isn’t a promising ratio). Sure, it’s Opening Day, but, eventually, this could be something that makes or breaks this FSU squad. Even so, it’s pretty cool that in his last opener, 11’s team scored 11 runs.

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