No, the sky is not falling on FSU baseball. Yes, Mike Martin Jr. is still the head coach. After a loss on opening night, the Seminoles bounced back with a blowout win over Niagara. The Seminoles defeated the Purple Eagles by a score of 24-4. FSU’s offense came up with 14 hits and 8 extra base hits on Saturday afternoon. The offense also compiled 18 free passes on the afternoon. On the mound, FSU’s pitchers allowed just 5 hits while striking out 12 batters. Florida State and Niagara will face off in a rubber match to determine the series winner at 10 AM tomorrow.

Three Up

• Freshmen Tyrell Brewer and Dylan Simmons both made their first career starts as Seminoles on Saturday afternoon. The right-handed hitters got FSU’s offense back on track after falling flat last night. Simmons provided FSU their first extra base hit and hit out of the infield on the season in his first AB. The freshman ripped a ball to the RCF gap thought brought in Elijah Cabell to open up the scoring for the ‘Noles. Brewer came up with FSU’s first big two-out hit of the season, as he cleared the bases with a rocket down the 3B line. The two freshmen combined to go 4-5 with 5 RBI’s and 4 BB’s on the day. Simmons and Brewer will likely continue to fill platoon roles early in the season, but if they continue to produce like they did today, they’ll be everyday starters down the road.
• Elijah Cabell had as poor of a start as possible on Friday, going 0-4 with four K’s. The sophomore bounced back on Saturday, getting on base and scoring in every plate appearance. Cabell came up with two hits, including one double, and four RBI’s on the day. He also produced 4 runs while drawing one walk and being hit by a pitch. Most importantly, he didn’t swing and miss once all game. When he puts the ball in play, only good things can happen.
• After awful situational and two-out hitting on Friday night, Florida State looked like a completely different team today. The Seminoles were 9-17 with 2 outs on the night, driving in 12 runs with two outs. Florida State was also 9-20 with runners in scoring position on the night. FSU also brought runners home from third with less than two outs four out of five times. FSU needs to continue this trend to be a quality baseball team in 2020.
• Bonus one: Carter Smith ripped FSU’s first homer of the season coming off the bench. The lefty took a 1-1 pitch over the left field fence for a three-run homer to give FSU a 20-run lead. It was Smith’s third career homer.

Three Down

• Shane Drohan got the start on the bump for FSU and he wasn’t bad, but he didn’t show much improvement with command or efficiency. The junior threw 79 pitches in just 3.2 IP. He also walked three batters as he threw 54.4% strikes. It was a weird start for the lefty, as he had multiple innings where he had to sit on the bench for 25+ innings as FSU’s offense went to work. Either way, the junior has to find the zone and be efficient from start-to-start or else it will be an ineffective year for Drohan.
• After FSU put up an eight-spot in the second inning, Drohan immediately walked the first batter of the third on five pitches. The next batter drove in the leadoff man with a double down the first base line, before being drove in on an error by Nander De Sedas. The lefty limited the damage to just the two runs with two strikeouts, but the damage was already done. After posting a crooked number on the board, the ‘Noles have to keep the opponent off the board to keep momentum in their favor.
• De Sedas has had a slow start to 2020. After going 0-3 with a K on Friday night, the sophomore followed it up with a golden sombrero performance on Saturday. Yes, FSU is now 2/2 on golden sombreros this season. De Sedas went 0-4 with 4 K’s, 2 BB’s and a run. The shortstop also made an error as a ball went right through his legs which led to an unearned run.

GAME THREAD

BOX SCORE