Three up, three down: Florida State evens series with Boston College

Chestnut Hill, MA - After last night’s pitching duel, Florida State and Boston College’s offense battled back and forth before FSU put the game out of reach in the seventh inning. Brett Roberts and Alex Toral picked up six RBIs combined in the Seminoles’ 10-4 win.

The Seminoles started the scoring in the second after Toral doubled in Reese Albert. It could have been a bigger inning for Florida State but the ‘Noles failed to advance runners on second and third with no outs. Boston College tied the game in the bottom of the frame with a Rafe Chaumette home run off Carson Montgomery. Scoring picked back up in the fourth when Roberts deposited an offering over the left field fence for a solo shot for FSU. Once again, the Eagles struck right back in the bottom of the inning with two runs of their own.

FSU battled back to take the lead in the fifth, taking advantage of Boston College’s fielding miscues. Tyler Martin picked up a single and Jordan Carrion reached on fielding mistakes by both the third and first basemen. Jaime Ferrer then drove in Martin to square the game at three. Albert would advance Ferrer to third off a single and the Eagles’ fielding woes continued when Ferrer scored off an errant throw by BC’s catcher. In the bottom of the fifth, it was Boston College’s turn to take advantage of FSU fielding mistakes. Carrion allowed the first runner to reach with a bad throw to first and Colton Vincent would get crossed up and allow the runner to advance to second on a passed ball. Boston College’s Luke Gold made FSU pay by driving in BC’s fourth run of the game to once again tie the score.

The game remained tied at four until the seventh where Roberts and Toral would continue their big days. Carrion started the inning with a groundout before James Tibbs and Ferrer reached base via walk and another BC error. Albert struck out and Roberts stepped to the plate with two outs. With two strikes, Roberts pushed a single up the middle to score both Tibbs and Ferrer. Toral then obliterated a pitch to right to push FSU’s lead to four.

Wyatt Crowell took the mound in the sixth and sat down all three BC batters he faced. Crowell followed that up by stopping the Boston College scoring pattern with a scoreless seventh. Vincent began the eighth for Florida State with a groundout before Martin and Carrion singles. After Tibbs reached by a fielder’s choice which saw all runners safe, Ferrer would drive in both Martin and Carrion with an single to left field to extend the lead to 10-4. Crowell kept the BC bats flailing in the eighth and ninth to seal the win for FSU.

Game Thread

Box Score

Three up

An offensive outburst

The Florida State offense has received its fair share of criticism on the year. The Seminoles have been outhit against lesser opponents multiple times this year. The bats have seen long droughts in game and in season that have let down excellent pitching performances. Today, the offense erupted for ten runs. Eight of FSU’s starting nine recorded a hit and the ‘Noles scored runs in five separate innings.

Offense when it mattered

The stat that stands out the most for the Florida State offense is their performance with two outs. After missing an opportunity for more in the second inning, the offense responded with five RBIs on the day when they were down to their last out of the inning. Overall, the Seminoles picked up eight hits with runners on base and also four hits with runners in scoring position.

Crowell keeps it clean

Wyatt Crowell might be the best arm on the staff not named Parker Messick. The lefty dominated opponents with a 0.98 ERA in April over 18.1 innings pitched. The sophomore continued his excellence with another excellent performance on the mound. On the day, Crowell registered six strikeouts across four scoreless innings.

Two down

Carrion struggling to find a routine

The announcers mentioned in the game that Carrion and others for FSU have battled an illness as of late. They stated that this may have affected Carrion’s defense but loyal FSU fans will know that it’s the routine plays that the Florida transfer has struggled with this year. Carrion has dazzled at times with spectacular plays at short this year but will need to figure out where the gap in focus is on the easy plays. His errant throws today led to an unearned run for Florida State and also a hopefully minor injury to Toral.

Montgomery still looking to improve

It was not a bad pitching effort by Montgomery but it certainly could have been better. His final line was 5.0 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. FSU really needs the rotation post Messick to tighten up if it hopes to make a deep post season run.

Up next: FSU looks for the series win tomorrow at 1:00 PM.