After a sweep of Clemson, fans were right to wonder if Florida State (23-13) had really started to turn the season around or if it was just a one week upswing. Through one game of the Virginia (22-17) series and the Seminoles have kept it rolling. Behind a great start from Drew Parrish the offense exploded early on their way to a 14-2 win. The ’Noles need to keep winning to increase their chances of making the NCAA tournament but the last two weeks have been huge.

Three Up

• After going eight innings and giving up no runs against Clemson Drew Parrish threw six innings without giving up an earned run against Virginia. The senior lefty walked two while striking out six and only gave up five hits. He didn’t get much help from his defense as the only Cavalier run was scored on a single, two errors and a RBI ground out. Parrish pounded the zone and varied his speeds well keeping the UVA offense off balance all game.
• FSU struck out 10 times but they also walked 11. Add in the 13 hits and you have a recipe for double digits runs for the second time in two weeks. No one batter stood out with just three Seminoles having multi-hit games but the ’Noles forced freshman pitcher Mike Vasil to throw strikes and took advantage when he did. Seven out of the nine starters recorded a hit on the day and only three hits went for extra bases. Steady pressure won the day for FSU.
• With the game all but secured Florida State turned to the bullpen in the seventh inning. You might expect to see Chase Haney or Clayton Kwiatkowski or Jonah Scolaro in this situation but the coaching staff looked further down the line as Antonio Velez, Austin Pollock and Cade Hungate each pitched an inning to close out the game. The trio only gave up one run (unearned) on four hits and one walk. It’s great to get these guys some experience in high leverage situations because they don’t have to be concerned with holding a lead. They can go out there, throw and try to build some confidence.

Three Down

• Once again errors were a big bugaboo for the Seminoles. Both runs were unearned because FSU couldn’t cleanly field the ball. In the third inning Drew Mendoza and Nico Baldor both committed errors as UVA cut the 3-0 by one with just one hit in the inning. In the seventh inning Elijah Cabell was moved over to center field and immediately misplayed a ball which turned a single into a triple and a run one batter later. Going into the weekend Florida State had a fielding percentage of .969 and it got worse in this game. The fielding percentage looks especially bad considering FSU had the best fielding percentage in the country through a few weeks. Now, they’re ranked 125.
• Mendoza had a day to forget. Along with the error the power hitting Mendoza was 0-4 at the plate with four strike outs. He was able to work two walks but he often times was over aggressive on pitchers low in the zone. He accounted for just under half of all Florida State’s strike outs on the day.
• Frankly there’s nothing else here. FSU played a largely clean game. They got up on UVA early and kept up the pressure.

Game Thread

Box Score

Florida State returns to the diamond on Friday at Virginia at 6:00 pm. Storms could delay the game though so stay tuned.