Three up, three down: Seminoles take double header from Jacksonville

Tallahassee, FL - The Florida State Seminoles took both games of the double header against Jacksonville 2-1 and 5-4. The ‘Noles only scored runs in two of the 14 innings played today (the games were shortened to seven innings a piece) but it was just enough to edge the visitors from across the state.

Game one started with Ross Dunn on the hill but he only lasted 0.2 innings, giving up a run and giving way to Jonah Scolaro. Scolaro picked up the win on the day pitching 4.1 innings of scoreless baseball and getting an inning a piece from Davis Hare and Wyatt Corwell.

Struggling to find a hit FSU finally struck gold in the fifth as both Colton Vincent and Jordan Carrion started the inning with singles before being moved up a base by Brett Roberts sac bunt and coming home on James Tibbs’ double to right field. That was all the staff would need to secure game one.

Game two looked to be in the bag relatively early as FSU put up five runs in the third using a pair of singles from AJ Shaver and Carrion and a walk by Jamie Ferrer to load the bases for Brett Mathis. The catcher took a ball deep to center field for a two run ground rule double. Jackson Greene followed with sac bunt to score Ferrer. Jacksonville pitcher Blake Barquin made a nice play on the ball, tossing it to the catcher with just his glove but Ferrer was fast enough to slip under the tag at home. After Alex Toral walked Mathis scored on a wild pitch once again just barely avoiding the tag and Logan Lacey rounded out the scoring with a sac fly.

Jacksonville punched back in the top of the fourth with back to back doubles and a walk loading the bases against starter Jackson Baumeister before scoring a run on a hit by pitch. Conner Whittaker would come on in relief and get a strike out to end the inning. Jacksonville would threaten in the fifth and sixth before finally hitting pay dirt in the top of the seventh. Hare gave up back-to-back-to-back one out singles, none of them being super well hit balls, before getting a strike out. However, another ground ball single up the middle along with a throwing error by center fielder Treyton Rank shrank the FSU lead to 5-4. Hare induced a ground out to the next batter with the tying run on third to preserve the game and the day for FSU.

Game Thread

Game 1 Box Score

Game 2 Box Score

Three up

FSU makes the plays they need

Throughout this year FSU has been close in games only to see the other team make those game winning plays but today the Seminoles got the wins because of those plays. In game one the pitching staff held Jacksonville to just one run on five hits and two walks allowing James Tibbs to double in the two runs the ‘Noles needed on the day. In game two Jacksonville loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth and were held to one run. In the sixth they again loaded the bases, but this time Hare ended the threat with a strike out and two fly balls to keep the Dolphins off the board, the last out being a catch from Tibbs crashing into the wall. The very next inning Jacksonville had the bases loaded with just one out and while they did score three runs it was almost none as Hare got a strike out and induced a ground ball. In fact all four hits in the inning seemed to have eyes, so it’s hard to blame Hare for that situation.

The ‘Noles get offense from power producers

FSU had two players with multi-hit games on the day. Toral grabbed two singles in game one and Mathis had a double and single in game two to go along with Tibbs’ double in game one. FSU has struggled to get production from expected offensive players like Toral and Lacey but they are starting to come around. Even though Toral didn’t drive in any runs he had competitive at bats all day and even though Lacey didn’t have any hits he did have a nice sac fly which ended up being the game winning run.

A double header sweep

Double headers are hard and this Jacksonville team plays FSU very well. The Dolphins beat FSU earlier this year in Jacksonville 2-3 and almost took both games today. Six of the last seven games between FSU and Jacksonville have been one score games. Fighting for a regional host and not taking care of business last week (2-2) FSU needs to pile up wins and improve it’s RPI. While these games against Jacksonville will not help the RPI, a loss would put Florida State in a very precarious position.

One down

FSU plays with fire

While FSU was able to pull out the win they constantly put themselves into difficult situations. They only scored runs in two of the 14 innings on the day and allowed JU to load the bases on multiple occasions. Florida State was able to wriggle out of that but playing with fire like that will get a team burned eventually.

Up Next: FSU hosts Miami for a three game series over the weekend.