Florida State (22-8, 9-2) continues to roll. The young squad has yet to lose a series while continuing to climb in the polls every week. In the latest D1 poll, Florida State jumped to fourth in the country.
The Seminoles split a midweek series against No. 22 Texas Tech. Florida State ran away with the first game 10-1. Quincy Nieporte hit his first homerun of the season with a two run shot to left field. On the mound, FSU worked by committee, throwing six different pitchers. Jim Voyles picked up the win in 1 2/3 innings pitched, giving up one hit and sitting two down on strikes.
Texas Tech was able to bounce back and win game two. The Red Raiders jumped all over freshmen starter Cole Sands. The local right hander managed to get out of the first inning, but only after giving up five runs on four hits.
Tech continued to build upon their big first inning throughout the game, as they coasted to the finish, splitting the two game series with the Seminoles as they left Tallahassee.
No. 8 Florida State only had one day before they had to face off with the No. 4 Louisville Cardinals.
Florida State fell behind early, but battled back and scratched seven runs across in the sevenths inning to beat Louisville in game one 12-7. FSU was led offensively by John Sansone and Matt Henderson, as the two combined went 7-9 at the plate with five RBI and one walk.
The Seminoles, who had 18 hits on Friday night, were completely locked down on Saturday. Drew Harrington took the mound for the Cardinals and he was untouchable. The Louisville starter only gave up two hits and one run in 7 2/3 innings. The Seminoles’ lonely run came from a Cal Raleigh solo home run. Louisville went on to win game two 7-1.
If you take away the Saturday performance, the Florida State offense was on fire. FSU went on to win the series against No. 4 Louisville with their 16-4 victory over the Cardinals on Sunday.
Dylan Busby hit a grand slam in the third inning to kick off the Seminoles’ scoring spree. FSU would score five in the third, three in the fourth, and six in the fifth.
Kyler Funkhouser, a first round pick in last year’s major league baseball draft, turned down over 1 million dollars and chose to came back for his senior season. He started for the Cardinals on Sunday, giving up eight runs and walking four in 3 1/3 innings.
Lincoln Henzman came in to relieve Funkhouser, but to no avail. Henzman threw one full inning, giving up five runs and walking two.
Florida State picking up three big wins against ranked opponents says a lot about this team and the direction they are headed as we head down the stretch of the season.
