LHP Wes Mendes and John Abraham combined for eight innings of shutout baseball, while the 7-8-9 in the Seminoles lineup racked up five hits, including three from Jace Estes to give Florida State a convincing 6-1 win to begin its weekend in Arlington, Texas.
Once again, Mendes was excellent, controlling the zone and working both sides of the plate to keep the Michigan hitters off balance. He appears to be the Friday-night ace that the Noles need him to be. Abraham came in after and 2 1/3 of scoreless
baseball, continuing to be a trusted piece in a revamped FSU bullpen.
Offensively, Jace Estes and Gabe Fraser combined for six of FSU’s 13 hits as part of seven Seminoles recording a base knock today. If the Noles get production from the bottom part of their order, the complexion of the lineup changes dramatically.
Mendes established his fastball early in the game, consistently dotting it down in the zone. The lefty used his heater to fire a 1-2-3 top half of the first. In the bottom of the frame, the Noles put two on with nobody out, but were unable to capitalize.
Mendes continued rolling in the second, this time showing his changeup for the first time, leading to another clean frame. The junior found his first trouble in the top of the third, as Michigan put a runner in scoring position with a walk and sacrifice bunt, but Myles Bailey made an incredible jumping grab at first to retire the side.
The Noles struck first in the bottom of the second. Gabe Fraser powered an opposite-field triple to lead off the inning, before Jace Estes fouled off four straight pitches and blooped a single into center field.
Michigan seemed primed to score in the top of the fourth, as the first two batters of the inning reached base on two balls that could have been outs. However, Mendes displayed his growing maturity and practiced “self-contained relief,” as Jarrett likes to call it. The Friday-starter sat down the Wolverine clean-up hitter on strikes and induced back-to-back popouts to keep the shutout intact.
Florida State’s offense rewarded its pitcher in the bottom of the inning. Fraser picked up his second extra-base hit of the game, a double, and two batters later, Estes drove in his second run of the game with a single. After a Chase Williams base knock, Noah Sheffield ambushed the first pitch of his at-bat and roped a two-out RBI single through the left side to plate Estes.
Mendes continued rolling in the top of the fifth, striking the first two batters of the inning, his sixth and seventh punchouts of the afternoon. A catcher’s interference put a Michigan base runner on, but another jumping play from Bailey at first, this time snaring a high chopper, left the runner on. Jarrett let Mendes get the first batter of the sixth, a fly out to center, before ending his afternoon. The junior went 5 1/3 with one walk, seven strikeouts, no hits and no runs allowed. It was another dominant outing, as Mendes has started the year with 10 1/3 IP without allowing a run. As mentioned, he consistently kept his heater low in the zone, the key to his starts, according to Jarrett, while having a feel for multiple secondary pitches, including a power changeup.
RHP John Abraham came to relieve Mendes and sat down the final two batters of the frame. In the bottom of the sixth, the Noles began to pull away. Leading 3-0, Estes legged out an infield single, his third hit of the day, Williams walked and Brayden Dowd drove them in with a two-RBI double into the left-center gap. After Sheffield and Bailey got on with free passes to load the bases, Cal Fisher launched a sacrifice fly to the warning track, plating Dowd and making it a 6-0.
Abraham stayed out for the seventh and fired a 1-2-3 frame as he retired the first five batters he saw, continuing his strong start to the season in his third appearance. The Seminoles squandered a chance to put the game out of reach in the home half of the seventh as Fraser and Brody Delamielleure were on second and third with nobody out, but a groundout, strikeout and flyout left them stranded. If there was one downside to today’s performance, the Noles struggled to hit with runners in scoring position,
LHP Cooper Whited relieved Abraham with two outs in the eighth, marooning two in scoring position to post another zero. The Wolverines finally got on the board with a solo home run in the ninth, and threatened with two runners on and nobody out,
