Florida State (18-11) dropped it’s third straight game falling to Miami (19-11) 11-0. The game was competitive for four innings before the wheels fell off. At this point in the season there’s no question that this team is reeling and needs to gather themselves but with a lame duck head coach, the next head coach not yet named and most of the team’s talent coming from freshmen where do the Seminoles turn to right the ship?

3 Up

• Mike Salvatore has been having a very nice season at the lead off position. The senior from New Jersey once again set up the team for success by accounting for two of FSU’s four hits and was hit by another. Usually getting your lead off hitter on base is key to score runs and Salvatore has done that consistently (three of four at bats against Miami) but the rest of the order is struggling so much that his contributions do not tend to lead to much.
• The only other batter pulling his weight would be Drew Mendoza. Mendoza has been a bit up and down this season sometimes doing what he did against Miami (1-2, 2 BB) and sometimes going 0-4 with a couple of strike outs. Thankfully he’s seen more of the former than the latter this season.
• No, just no. Keep scrolling.

3 Down

• Drew Parrish looked like he was going to be an up but then the fifth inning happened. The inning started with two singles followed by a ground out to move the runners up, an intentional walk and then a grand slam. Parrish’s day was over. Parrish wasn’t terrible on the whole. He threw 4.1 innings striking out five and walking two but when things went bad, they went very bad. Parrish had given up just one hit before the fourth inning.
• Unfortunately it didn’t much matter how well Parrish pitched. Outside of Salvatore and Mendoza the offense was an abject mess. The ‘Noles tallied four hits walking just three times to 11 strike outs. Many at bats are not even very competitive and the coach staff has obviously lost confidence. Not surprisingly the freshmen have been some of the worst offenders as Nander de Sedas and Elijiah Cabell accounted for five of FSU’s 11 strike outs.
• Just as the offense has been bad the pen as, arguably been worse. Austing Pollock relieved Parrish after the grand slam and immediately walked the only batter he faced. Chase Haney performed admirably but only saw five batter before giving way to Tyler Ahearn, who walked three of the seven batters he faced and gave up hits to two others in the 0.2 innings pitched. Gage Hutchinson didn’t walk anybody but did give up a hit and run in his 0.1 innings due to a wild pitch and another Mendoza error. Finally Cade Hungate finished the game with a walk, hit, run scored and wild pitch (that would be the third wild pitch on the game if you’re keeping track at home). When all was said and done the pen was responsible for seven runs, five walks, four hits, four strike outs and three wild pitches.

Game Thread

Box Score

Florida State returns to Miami for game two at 7:00 PM and maybe this time they’ll put up some semblance of a fight or at least fold immediately to stop wasting everybody’s time.