Florida State looks to grab midweek road win vs. UNF: Preview, pitchers, game thread, how to watch

Florida State Seminoles baseball (13-22, 4-14) is on the road in Jacksonville today to take on the University of North Florida Ospreys (19-16, 7-8).

FSU has struggled mightily in the last month, winning just two of their last 18, and haven’t won a series since its conference-play opening 2-1 win vs. Pitt on March 10-12.

Hopefully, the Seminoles will have an easy game and find something to build off of but that hasn’t been anywhere close to a guarantee as of late. While they are not quite mathematically eliminated from the NCAA or ACC tournaments, they have a steep hill to climb.

Finishing the season on any sort of upwards momentum would be a nice accomplishment and certainly help fans feel better about the disaster that has been Link Jarrett’s first year back at his alma mater.

Once again, FSU crashes and burns

Watch: ACC Network Extra

Listen: Seminoles Radio Network

FSU: RHP Ben Barrett (0-0, 3.71 ERA)

UNF: TBA

Florida State (13-23, 4-14) may have finally hit rock bottom falling to UNF (20-16, 7-8) 15-14 in 10 innings. FSU got on the board early and often but none of the 10 pitchers FSU used could hold the UNF offense down for any period of time. Not only did FSU give up 15 runs they also walked eight and threw six wild pitches.

UNF got on the board first with a couple of singles and a stolen base in the third inning. The lead was not long lived for the Ospreys as FSU used a couple of singles and a stolen base of their own to knot the score at one. A Jaimie Ferrer home run later and the ‘Noles had a 3-2 lead.

In the sixth inning the Seminoles used a bunch of singles and an error to put up two more runs taking a 5-3 lead. However, the theme of this game and short lived leads started to unveil itself here. North Florida started the bottom of the inning with two strike outs but drew a walk in the next at bat and then moved to third on a couple of wild pitches. The runner would score on a single and the Ospreys would tie the game at five with a home run.

Once again FSU would grab a lead with a Treyton Rank single and Cam Smith home run in the top of the seventh and add another in the eighth with a couple of UNF errors taking a 8-5 lead. Unfortunately things would unravel in the bottom of the inning. A home run, single, triple, strike out, single, two wild pitches, single error, home run would give the Ospreys a commanding 12-8 lead. FSU would use four pitchers in the inning with Brett Barfield collecting the final two outs.

Once again not lead was safe though as Florida State put up four runs using a host of singles, a double and an error to tie the game at 12. Barfield worked a scoreless ninth to take the game into extra innings. In the top of the tenth Cam Smith would homer for the second time in the game putting FSU in the lead. James Tibbs would come around to score after singling and swiping second on a couple of productive outs. UNF would tie the game on a walk and a couple of doubles forcing Jordan Carrion to make his first appearance on the mound with the winning run on second. Carrion would get an out on a fly ball moving the runner up to third and UNF would take the lead on a wild pitch to end the game.

Up Next: Florida State is back home to take on a Virginia Tech team that just swept Georgia Tech in Blacksburg.