Florida State baseball (15-3, 2-0 ACC) clinched its first ACC series of the season in a no-frills 2-0 win over Wake Forest on Saturday, with a Nathan Cmeyla home run and Eli Putnam RBI all the Seminoles needed from the offense to earn the win as their pitching staff once again shut out the Demon Deacons.
Florida State’s bats didn’t start where they left off from Friday night’s showing, with the entire order failing to reach base as the Seminoles strung together a trio of three-up, three-down frames
in the first three innings.
Trey Beard got his third start of the season for the Seminoles, beginning his outing by retiring the first six batters he faced as well, striking out five of them. The first base runner of the day for either team came on a two-out walk in the bottom of the third, but Beard struck out his seventh batter to keep the stalemate in place.
The top of the fourth saw Myles Bailey reach on a walk, but once again, the Seminoles failed to register a hit.
Beard kept his impressive outing going with another three-up, three-down frame, logging another two strikeouts.
In the fifth, following a Brayden Dowd fly-out, Nathan Cmeyla got the game’s first hit — and the first run, homering to deep right field to put Florida State up 1-0. Eli Putnam got on base off a dribbler, advancing after Cal Fisher was walked, but a John Suetzer groundout closed out the inning.
The bottom of the sixth offered Wake’s best attempt at breaking through, with a runner making their way all the way to third but left stranded.
Will Bavaro tacked on another hit in the seventh, just the third of four hits from FSU on Saturday with the final being Putnam’s RBI in the top of the ninth.
Beard went 6.2 innings for Florida State, striking out 14 (a career high) of 22 batters faced and giving up a single hit. John Abraham, in 2.1 innings of work, faced eight and struck out two.
FSU wraps up the series with Wake Forest tomorrow at 4 p.m., with the game set to be broadcast on ACC Network.
