Florida State dooms itself against Florida

Once again Florida State (13-19, 4-11) wasted a good start by Ben Barrett and blew a late lead falling to Florida (28-6, 9-3) 5-3.

Barrett threw five innings of one hit ball striking out two and surrendering just two walks. He was very efficient with his pitches, totaling just 64 on the night. Barrett has put together a few nice starts now and will probably get a shot in the weekend rotation going forward. Unfortunately FSU’s thin pitching staff tends to render any positive outings null and void. The pen gave up four hits, six walks and an error in three innings of work.

Barrett was largely matched by UF’s Ryan Slater as he went six innings but did give up three runs in his final frame. Just like they’ve been doing for large portions of the season the ‘Noles looked to drive the first strike they saw but were coming up empty. In the sixth inning FSU got a lead off single from Jordan Carrion, who moved up on a wild pitch. He was brought home on a double down the first base line by DeAmez Ross two batters later. Jaimie Ferrer put runners on the corners on an error by the Gator short stop and both were brought home on a James Tibbs double taking a 3-0 lead.

The final three innings for Florida started with a lead off walk. Andrew Armstrong started the sixth and seventh with a walk and single to center to put two runners on with no outs. In the sixth he gave up a run by way of another single but kept the damage to a minimum. In the seventh he induced a ground out before giving way to Jaimie Arnold. Arnold finished the scoreless frame with two ground outs and a walk keeping FSU ahead 3-1 going into the eighth.

Arnold started the eighth with two walks and a strike out before giving way to Doug Kirkland. Kirkland would end up going to a three ball count on three of the four hitters he faced and committed an error on a pick off attempt at second to score a run. With FSU now clinging to a 3-2 lead with four outs to go Kirkland walked Colby Halter and gave up a three run home run to Richie Schiekofer giving UF a 5-3 lead that FSU was unable to threaten.

Up Next: FSU goes on the road for a three game set against NC State, the first of which starts Friday at 6:00