No. 14 Florida State baseball (34-14, 15-9 ACC) fell behind early, but two runs in the fifth, one in the seventh, and two in the eighth helped the Noles pull away from Jacksonville (26-21, 13-11), 5-2, clinching a win and a series sweep against JU.
Once again, the story of tonight was the Seminole bullpen, which went 6.1 innings while allowing only two runs without using John Abraham or Chris Knier. Brodie Purcell’s 3.0 shutout innings helped stabilize the game for FSU on the mound before Kevin Mebil
went six up, six down in the eighth and ninth to close out the victory. With no more midweek games remaining, Link Jarrett will have a stable of trusted right-handed and left-handed relievers out of the bullpen.
On the offensive side, it took the Seminoles a while to get going, but the top of the Florida State lineup, John Stuetzer, Brayden Dowd, and Brody DeLamielleure, continued to stay hot, combining for two homers and three RBI. Specifically, on DeLamielleure, he is the breakout bat the Noles desperately needed, and he went 3-4 tonight with a double and a run scored. However, outside of those three, there was more inconsistency from the FSU offense, as the rest of the lineup combined for only three hits, none of which were extra bases.
Cooper Whited picked up where he left off from his dominant midweek start last week as he needed only nine pitches to retire the Dolphins in order in the top of the first. The lefty raised the bar in the second as he struck out the side and worked around a two-out walk, while throwing 22 of his first 26 pitches for strikes. He had a feel for multiple secondary pitches, including a changeup with arm-side run and a 12-6 breaking ball.
Unfortunately, the Florida State offense could not take advantage of the strong start on the mound as the Noles stranded DeLamielleure on second in the bottom of the first, after his two-out double, before being retired in order in the ensuing frame due to Gabe Fraser being picked off first.
Whited found his first sign of trouble in the third as a hit-by-pitch and a bloop single put two on with one out before a sacrifice-fly moved both runners over. Considering FSU only used six arms last weekend, and with no more midweeks, Link Jarrett chose to yank the Whited after just 43 pitches. The head coach inserted Cade O’Leary, but it turned out to be the wrong decision, as O’Leary’s first pitch was wild, allowing the first run of the game to score, and later in the at-bat, an RBI single put FSU behind, 2-0.
O’Leary continued to struggle in the fourth as the first two Dolphins runners of the frame reached, forcing Jarrett to go with Purcell. The former USC transfer loaded the bases with a two-out walk, but extinguished the threat and kept the Seminole deficit at two.
Florida State attempted its first response in the bottom of the frame as three-straight two-out baserunners reached to load the bases, but Carter McCulley grounded out on the first pitch of his at-bat as the Noles were unable to remove the zero from the scoreboard.
However, in the fifth, the Noles broke through as Stuetzer powered a lead-off solo homer to left to halve the gap, 2-1. The rally continued as the 2-3-4 in the Seminole lineup all reached, loading the bases with nobody out in the frame. In the ensuing at-bat, a sacrifice fly tied the game at two, but that would be all from FSU in the inning. Even though the Noles reloaded the bases, back-to-back strikeouts from Eli Putnam and Cal Fisher left the runners on.
After a quiet sixth, DeLamielleure led off the seventh with a single, stole second, and advanced to third on an error as Florida State looked for a way to break the deadlock. Later in the inning, Hunter Carns walked, putting runners on the corners with nobody out, and Nathan Cmeyla went the other way with an RBI single as FSU took its first advantage, 3-2. The Seminoles had a chance to push out further with runners still on first and third with one out, and once again, Putnam and Fisher left runners on base with unproductive at-bats.
Jarrett turned to Kevin Mebil in the eighth, and the lefty did his job out of the bullpen, needing only five pitches to fire a perfect frame. The Seminoles gave Mebil some insurance in the bottom half as Brayden Dowd crushed a two-run homer, with Stuetzer standing on first, to center as the Noles pushed out to a three-run lead, 5-2.
Mebil came back out for the ninth and continued ripping through the Dolphin lineup, as he punched out the side to close out Florida State’s 5-2 midweek win. Mebil did not allow a baserunner and struck out four of the six batters he faced, giving Jarrett another option out of the bullpen with postseason play around the corner. Tonight’s win makes it five in a row for Florida State as the Seminoles head north to Clemson full of confidence.
