Florida State UNF

No. 8 Florida State baseball (29-11, 12-6) began its four-game road trip with a 4-1 win over North Florida (23-17, 14-4) on Tuesday night. With the victory, the Seminoles clinched a series sweep over the Ospreys and hold a 6-0 record over the ASUN so far this season.

The Seminole bullpen was the story in this one, as without a minted mid-week starter or their best bullpen arms, John Abraham and Brodie Purcell, Micah Posey’s unit held UNF to only one run on three hits. For the Noles to win games, they have to be able to rely on their arms, and they came through in a massive way to clinch FSU’s fifth-straight win.

As mentioned, needing an arm to step up with their usual mid-week starters Cooper Whited and Payton Manca down, Link Jarrett handed the ball to freshman Manny Lantigua. Lantigua was ready for his moment as he sat down North Florida in order in the first before stranding runners on the corners in the second.

The Seminoles took an early lead in the top of the third as Carter McCulley reached with a one-out single before getting brought in by Brayden Dowd’s RBI double down the left-field line.

Gabe Nard helped hold the Ospreys off the board as he went 2.0 perfect innings out of the ‘pen in relief of Lantigua. The Duke transfer should be a massive part of FSU’s bullpen down the stretch, and seeing him look like himself is critical for the Seminoles, even if it was during the midweek against an ASUN opponent.

With the bullpen keeping UNF quiet, the Seminoles pushed their lead in the fifth and sixth. In the fifth, Gabe Fraser began the frame with a bunt single, moved up 180 feet on a Cal Fisher double, and scored on a groundout from Eli Putnam. In the ensuing inning, FSU went up 3-0 as Putnam scored on a sacrifice fly.

North Florida’s offense finally woke up in the sixth as the Ospreys plated a run on a sacrifice fly and the Noles needed a Cade O’Leary strikeout to maroon a runner on second. In the seventh, UNF put a runner on first and second with two outs, but Ben Barrett induced a lazy fly ball to retire the side, after beginning his outing with six-straight balls.

Leading 3-1, Florida State tried to grow its lead as Brody DeLamielleure, a Jacksonville native, pushed a single through the left side to begin the inning. After the next two batters of the inning were retired, Putnam punished a hanging slider, lifting a line drive over the third baseman’s head into the left-field corner, and allowing DeLamielleure to score from third to make it a 4-1 game.

Kevin Mebil entered in the eighth and threw a clean inning to send FSU into the ninth with a three-run lead. The lefty needed only 10 pitches to retire the side as he created weak contact and kept his pitches down in the zone. After a quiet top half of the ninth for Florida State, Mebil came out for the bottom half to try to close out the Noles’ fifth-straight win.