Three up, three down: Messick dominates as FSU shuts out Samford for series-opening victory

Tallahassee, FL- Florida State baseball notched their first shutout of the season with a 7-0 victory over Samford on Friday night. FSU was led by Parker Messick’s dominant performance on the mound as he struck out a career-high 13 batters. Every starter in Florida State’s lineup notched a hit. Brett Roberts, Jordan Carrion, Colton Vincent, and Treyton Rank each had two hits. In the field, the Seminoles didn’t commit an error for the third straight game.

FSU: 7 runs / 14 hits / 0 errors

Samford: 0 runs / 1 hit / 1 error

WP: Parker Messick (2-0)

Box score

Game thread

Three up

• Messick dominates: Parker Messick was a whole new level of dominant tonight. Last week, Messick put up a solid line as he struck out 11 over 5.2 innings of one-run ball. Despite that effort, the southpaw wasn’t sharp with his breaking balls. Today, Messick was sharp with all four of his pitches and the Bulldogs had no chance in the batter’s box. The redshirt sophomore stranded a runner on base in the first with his second strikeout. He didn’t allow another baserunner until the fifth inning. After a leadoff hit-by-pitch in the fifth, Messick struck out three straight batters. He retired the last nine batters he faced. Eight of the nine consecutive outs came on strikeouts. Messick posted a final line of 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 13 K, 0 R, 85 pitches (74% strikes). The lefty’s 13 strikeouts set a new career-high. Through two starts, he’s allowed just one run in 12.2 IP, struck out 24 batters, and picked up two wins.

• Lacey’s no-doubter: Logan Lacey became for the first Seminole to reach multiple home runs in the 2022 season. Lacey, who hit 10 homers in 2021, led off the 3rd inning with his second blast of the season. The center fielder got down 0-2 in the count but took advantage of a fastball over the middle of the plate. Lacey turned on a 90 MPH fastball at the belt and sent it all the way to Georgia to put the ‘Noles up 2-0.

• Relentless lineup: FSU’s lineup made Samford’s starter grind through the first four innings. In the first inning, Alex Toral walked and Brett Roberts singled but the ‘Noles couldn’t scrape anything across. After Samford got two quick outs in the second, Colton Vincent dropped a two-strike pitch into center for a single. Treyton Rank followed with a quality at-bat of his own. The freshmen lined the eighth pitch he saw into center field and was rewarded as the center fielder misjudged it and couldn’t reel it in. Vincent came around to score the game’s first run on the error.

After Lacey’s leadoff homer in the third, Toral walked again and Roberts sent his second base knock into right to put two on with no outs. James Tibbs laced a single down the right-field line to open an early 3-0 FSU lead. Rank led off the fourth with an opposite-field single. The freshman made it to third after a pair of stolen bases and was driven in on a sac-fly by Lacey. A single by Toral and a walk by Roberts ended Samford’s starter’s day, who threw 100 pitches in 3.2 IP.

Jaime Ferrer led off the fifth inning with Florida State’s first triple of the season as he skied a ball off the right-field fence. Two pitches later, Jordan Carrion’s second hit drove in Ferrer. Vincent doubled down the right-field line to score Carrion from first. Rank’s second hit brought Vincent across the plate to extend FSU’s lead to seven after five. The bottom third of the order, Carrion-Vincent-Rank, combined to go 6-11 with five runs scored and four RBI.

Three down

• Baserunning: The Seminoles’ outs on the basepath have been their one glaring weakness so far this season. FSU made a couple more outs on the basepath tonight. On Tibbs’ RBI single in the third, he was thrown out at second trying to leg out a double for the first out of the inning. In the fifth inning, Reese Albert was thrown out at second trying to move up a base on a wild pitch for the first out of the inning.
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Up next: Game two of the series will be at 2:00 PM tomorrow. Bryce Hubbart will be on the mound for the ‘Noles.