FSU baseball drops seventh-straight weekend series

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish blasted solo homeruns in the first and second inning en route to to a series clinching 12-8 win over Florida State. On the day, the Irish clobbered four homeruns for seven RBIs.

Carson Montgomery floundered again on the mound lasting only 3.2 innings, allowing five earned runs. Jamie Arnold and Ben Barrett appeared in relief and both struggled as well, giving up a combined seven eared runs in just 2 innings. On a positive note, Brennen Oxford tossed 2.1 scoreless innings.

On the offensive side, the Florida State bats fought back multiple times during the game but the pitching shortfall was too much to overcome. In the third inning, facing a 2-0 deficit, took a 4-2 lead behind a Colton Vincent single and DeAmez Ross three run blast. Jaime Ferrer helped FSU once again battle back to knot the game at 5 in the fifth inning with an RBI double. Ferrer and Vincent would both pick up RBIs later in the game when the score was out of reach. It was encouraging to see the offense not give up but tough to see the Seminoles drop another winnable series.

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• Saturday: Notre Dame offense erupts to take game against FSU

The Florida State Seminoles baseball team jumped out to an early lead before Notre Dame ended their Saturday hopes with an explosive fourth inning, taking game two by the score of 12-2.

James Tibbs opened the game with a leadoff homerun and Conner Whittaker cruised through the first three frames, not allowing a hit. Nander De Sadas joined the homerun fun to start the fourth extending the FSU lead to 2-0 and then the bottom of the inning happened. After retiring the first batter, Whittaker and reliever Andrew Armstrong allowed six straight hits including a three-run homerun and back to back doubles to give the Irish a 6-2 lead.

Florida State batters slumped from there allowing Notre Dame’s starter, Blake Hely, to sit down 10 straight batters before handing the ball to the bullpen. The Notre Dame pen picked up right where Hely left off and retired the first four batters they faced before FSU finally picked up two hits in the ninth. In total, Florida State would send 16 batters to the plate from the end of the fourth through the ninth and 14 failed to reach base. An all too common theme for the FSU offense this year. To add insult to injury, Notre Dame added a grand slam in the bottom of the eighth, extending the score to 10-2. The Irish kept the offense rolling, tacking on two final runs.

Florida State will look to bounce back and clinch the series in the Sunday finale.

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• Friday: `Noles take game one from Irish

Florida State (15-25, 6-16) used a solid team pitching performance to secure a 3-2 win over Notre Dame (23-17, 11-11). Jackson Baumeister pitched a solid six innings and the pen kept the Irish down enough for time to run out on the team from South Bend. The offense wasn’t great but used a couple of two out hits to do just enough to take the series opening win.

After a couple of scoreless innings FSU started the third inning off with a DeAmez Ross walk. A sac bunt and strike out turned the order over to James Tibbs, who walked, and Jaimie Ferrer who doubled down the third base line giving the ‘Noles a 2-0 lead.

Notre Dame would strike back in the fifth with a solo shot by Estevan Moreno on a 3-2 pitch that Baumeister left up in the zone. FSU would retake the two run lead in the top of the seventh with singles by Nander DeSedas, Ross and Colton Vincent.

Unfortunately that was short lived. Notre Dame greeting Andrew Armstrong in the seventh with a double to right field. Ferrer took an initial step in before back peddling and the ball dropped in over his head. Ferrer might not have ben able to come down with the ball had he read it well off the bat but he did do a good job of getting the ball in to hold Brooks Coetzee to just two bases. Once again Moreno, one of the Irish’s hottest hitters, drove in an infield single between short stop and third. Armstrong would get a ground out on a good play by Jordan Carrion before giving way to Doug Kirkland, who struck out the next batter on three pitches for the final out of the inning. The Irish cut the lead to 3-2.

The roller coaster that is the FSU pitching staff continued in the bottom of the eighth as Doug Kirkland walked two runners but struck out Coetzee to get out of the jam. Kirkland pitched a solid ninth inning working around a two out error by Cam Smith and securing the win. Florida State now has an actual winning streak!

• Up Next: FSU plays Florida in a make up game in Jacksonville on Tuesday at 6:00.