Florida State baseball: Seminoles offense erupts in doubleheader sweep of Panthers

Nathan Cmeyla and Gabe Fraser each had two hits and two runs in the middle of the lineup for the Seminoles, with Cal Fisher providing two RBIs and scoring two runs despite being 0-for-2 on the day.

FSU certainly took advantage of some fielding mishaps from Pitt, which plays its home games on a turf field and seemed to struggle adapting to the Seminoles’ largely grass field. Five of the Seminoles’ 10 runs in Game 1 were unearned due to three errors by the Panthers.

But it was still a solid game at the plate for the Seminoles, who were 10-for-22 in advancement opportunities (.455) and 2-for-4 with runners in scoring position (.500), taking advantage of the scoring opportunities when rarely presented behind two crooked-number scoring innings.

Game 2

The Seminoles pounced early in the second game, taking a big lead after just two innings. Florida State starter Trey Beard tossed a scoreless first, striking out three. In the bottom of the frame, Nathan Cmeyla scored Brody DeLamielleure on a fielder’s choice for the first run of the game. The next batter, Gabe Fraser, brought Hunter Carns and Cmeyla home on a single up the middle.

In the second, Beard worked around an infield single, picking up his fourth and fifth punchouts. The Seminoles offense scored their fourth run off a Carter McCulley single that scored Cal Fisher. McCulley would later score on a wild pitch, extending the lead to five runs.

Beard ran into trouble in the third, allowing a leadoff home run to Carter Dierdorf. After Beard’s sixth strikeout, Pitt connected on back-to-back singles before Lorenzo Carrier crushed a three run shot to right field, cutting FSU’s lead to one run. With a runner on second, FSU looked poised to allow the Panthers to tie the game, but Beard induced a groundout to first to keep the score at 5-4.

Florida State and Pittsburgh stranded multiple runners over the next few frames until the Seminoles changed the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth. In back-to-back at-bats, Carns and Cmeyla crushed solo shots to extend the lead to three runs. Beard worked through the sixth inning, posting a final line of 6 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 8 K.

John Abraham took the mound in the seventh and fanned two more Panthers. In their half of the inning, FSU kept the offense rolling as Cmeyla drove in John Stuetzer for the Seminole’s eighth run of the game. It was Cmeyla’s third RBI of the day. Pitt picked up a solo shot in the ninth but the Seminoles hung on for the 8-5 victory.

Beard and Abraham combined for 13 total strikeouts and held Pitt to a .125 batting average (1-8) when runners were in scoring position.