No. 14 FSU baseball overcomes early deficit to take midweek matchup and sweep season series against JU

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.