Three up, three down: FSU baseball drops second straight game to Pitt

Florida State baseball dropped their second straight game to Pitt in a 7-2 loss tonight. FSU didn’t show many signs of life in the loss, as they were bad in every phase of the game. The Seminoles bats woke up a bit, with ten hits, but poor situational hitting and strikeouts were too much to overcome. On the mound, FSU gave up seven hits and eight walks. In the field, the ‘Noles made two errors. Mike Bell’s Panthers have thoroughly outplayed Mike Martin Jr.’s Seminoles through 18 innings and already clinched the series. FSU will look to salvage their first ACC series with a win in game three tomorrow.

Three up

• It’s the fifth game of the year.
• Elijah Cabell put together a solid night at the plate after a rough showing in his season debut last night. Cabell was 2-3 at the dish, singling both times he put the ball in play. He also walked once. Cabell’s second hit was an opposite field single. When he’s letting the ball get deep, he’s at his best. Getting Cabell going and having him back in a normal day-to-day routine will go a long ways to waking up FSU’s lineup.
• Reese Albert also had a solid night at the plate. Albert drove in the Seminoles’ first two runs of the week with a double off the very top of the center field wall in the 8th inning. Albert also had a single early in the game. He put the ball in play in all four of his at-bats and was robbed of a third hit by Pitt’s second baseman David Yanni. When Albert is putting the ball in play at a high rate, he’ll do damage at a high rate.

Three down

• Carson Montgomery struggled in his second career outing. The freshman didn’t have any earned runs on his final line, but couldn’t find the zone or efficiency with any of his four pitches. The RHP managed to get just three outs tonight, while walking three hitters and giving up two hits. He threw 38 pitches and just 47.4% for strikes. Montgomery struggled to put hitters away, throwing too many waste pitches when up in the count. Two of his three walks came in two-strike counts. He struggled to find any consistency with his release point, which put FSU’s bullpen in a hole. FSU simply can’t have weekend starters only give them three outs. No matter the team, the starter, or the situation. You won’t win many weekend games or series when starters don’t work efficiently.
• FSU’s offense was non-existent for the majority of the game. Pitt’s starter, Matt Gilbertson, had just as easy of a night on the mound as Mitch Myers did on Friday. Gilbertson K’d just 3 batters in five innings of work against Indiana State last weekend. Tonight, he had 10 K’s through five. Eight of Florida State’s nine starters struck out. Robby Martin had four K’s. Tyler Martin was 0-3 with his first K on the season. Nander De Sedas was 0-4 with 2 K’s. Jackson Greene was 0-2 with two strikeouts looking, both coming with two outs and a runner in scoring position. Florida State finished the night with 16 K’s. They were just 1-11 with runners in scoring position.
• FSU’s defense was a lone bright spot last night, but quickly erased their 0 in the error column for the weekend. On an attempted sac bunt, Nelson picked up the ball and mis-fired to third base. The ball rolled into the outfield as Pitt’s first run of the game across. Pitt pushed across two more unearned runs later in the inning with a two-out single. With two outs in the 6th inning, a ball went right through the five-hole of Dylan Simmons bringing in another unearned run. Four of Pitt’s seven runs were unearned.

Florida State’s next game is tomorrow at 2:00 PM against Pitt in Dick Howser.

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