Home Sweet Home! FSU Baseball returns to Howser, rolls to 8-3 win vs. Georgia Tech
After a road trip that saw them lose three times in four games, the No. 10 Florida State Seminoles returned home Thursday night for the final regular-season series of the year.
Safe to say the Seminoles enjoyed being back.
Jamie Arnold allowed three runs in 6 1/3 innings of work, reliever Brennan Oxford didn’t give up a run in relief, and the Florida State offense did more than enough to roll to an 8-3 series-opening victory over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Dick Howser Stadium.
The Seminoles are now 38-13 overall and 16-11 in the ACC. Georgia Tech drops to 30-20 and 14-14. Because of inclement weather expected on Saturday in Tallahassee, the two teams will play a doubleheader on Friday starting at 2 p.m. Senior Day Festivities are set for 1:30 p.m.
Coming off a 17-strikeout performance last week at Pitt, Arnold wasn’t nearly as dominant on Thursday night. Then again, Georgia Tech’s lineup isn’t Pitt’s. The Yellow Jackets have some serious firepower on offense, and they pounded out 11 hits against the Seminoles’ ace.
But they only were able to score three runs, as Arnold continually pitched into and out of trouble — thanks to two nifty double plays turned by the Florida State defense behind him.
Oxford pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning, inducing a soft lineout and then getting a strikeout looking. He then pitched out of a two-on, two-out predicament in the eighth by getting a pop-up to second base on a 3-2 pitch.
It wasn’t a dominant outing by any means by the Florida State pitching staff. Georgia Tech, which boasts one of the best offenses in the country, finished with 13 hits on the night. But the Seminoles won the late innings and wound up picking up a critical ACC victory against the Yellow Jackets.
On offense, Florida State used a mix of the long ball and small ball to score its runs.
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Alex Lodise, Drew Faurot and Cam Smith all hit solo homers against Georgia Tech starter Aeden Finateri, and then the FSU offense was able to manufacture five more runs the rest of the way.
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The Seminoles loaded the bases with nobody out in the fourth inning on a Smith single, a James Tibbs walk and a Marco Dinges single. Jaime Ferrer then grounded into a 3-6-3 double play, but the run scored to tie the game at 2-2.
In the sixth, Tibbs led off with another walk, advanced to second on Dinges’ hit-by-pitch, advanced to third on a Ferrer fly ball to right field and then scored on a Daniel Cantu safety squeeze bunt.
The final runs for the Seminoles came in the bottom of the eighth. Ferrer fought back from an 0-2 hole to work a walk, pinch-runner DeAmez Ross then advanced to third on a throwing error after an infield single by Cantu, and then Ross scored on a wild pitch.
After a walk to Faurot, Max Williams lined a two-run double down the right-field line to make the score 8-3.
Oxford then recorded the final three outs to secure the win and get the Seminoles ever closer to that 40-win plateau and a possible NCAA Regional hosting berth.
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