Entering its series opener at Louisville, the Florida State baseball team had played just one game in the previous nine days.
You certainly wouldn’t know that from the strong performance the Seminoles put on the field Friday night.
No. 4 FSU (31-7, 12-4 in ACC) took a big lead early and never let up, running away with a convincing 10-2 win at No. 19 Louisville (28-13, 10-9) in first game of the series.
It’s the Seminoles’ sixth straight win and just the fourth time in 26 games this season that Louisville has lost at home.
The Seminoles staked themselves to a 4-0 lead in the first inning on back-to-back home runs from Myles Bailey and Drew Faurot. Bailey’s was an inside-the-park three-run home run — his 10th of the season — on a liner to right where the Louisville right fielder hurt himself and was unable to make a play.
Faurot’s home run, though, cleared the fence down the right-field line.
As it turned out, that early outburst proved to be more than enough for FSU ace Jamie Arnold. Even though he hadn’t pitched in a game in 13 days, the junior left-handed pitcher was at his very best Friday night against the Cardinals.
After the off week, he threw a career-high 7.2 innings and struck out a season-high 11 batters.
He dealt with traffic in the later innings, allowing the leadoff batter to reach in each of his final five innings. However, he held the Cardinals hitless in their first 11 at-bats with runners on base and first seven ABs with runners in scoring position before a two-out RBI single by Lucas Moore in the eighth inning ended his outing.
Arnold got a three-ball count just three times against the 29 total batters he faced.
Over his last three starts vs. Wake Forest, at Virginia Tech and at Louisville, Arnold has allowed three total runs over 19.2 innings of work with 30 strikeouts.
John Abraham picked up the rest of the game out of the bullpen, retiring all four batters he faced to preserve the sweat-free victory.
Even though Arnold needed no more run support, he got plenty of it over the last five innings. FSU added three more home runs over the fifth through eighth innings, accounting for eight of its 10 runs in the series opener by way of the long ball.
Alex Lodise smashed his 14th homer of the season in the fifth inning. Cal Fisher hit his sixth homer of the season, a two-run shot, to extend the FSU lead to 7-1. Brody DeLamielleure closed out the scoring with a leadoff solo homer in the eighth inning, his sixth of the season. Faurot also had a two-run single, bringing his RBI tally on the night to three.
As a whole, FSU’s offense racked up 13 hits, led by three each from Lodise and Faurot.
Up Next
Game 2 of the series is set for Saturday at 2 p.m. Joey Volini gets the start for FSU against a TBA starter for Louisville.
Entering its series opener at Louisville, the Florida State baseball team had played just one game in the previous nine days.
You certainly wouldn’t know that from the strong performance the Seminoles put on the field Friday night.
No. 4 FSU (31-7, 12-4 in ACC) took a big lead early and never let up, running away with a convincing 10-2 win at No. 19 Louisville (28-13, 10-9) in first game of the series.
It’s the Seminoles’ sixth straight win and just the fourth time in 26 games this season that Louisville has lost at home.
The Seminoles staked themselves to a 4-0 lead in the first inning on back-to-back home runs from Myles Bailey and Drew Faurot. Bailey’s was an inside-the-park three-run home run — his 10th of the season — on a liner to right where the Louisville right fielder hurt himself and was unable to make a play.
Faurot’s home run, though, cleared the fence down the right-field line.
As it turned out, that early outburst proved to be more than enough for FSU ace Jamie Arnold. Even though he hadn’t pitched in a game in 13 days, the junior left-handed pitcher was at his very best Friday night against the Cardinals.
After the off week, he threw a career-high 7.2 innings and struck out a season-high 11 batters.
He dealt with traffic in the later innings, allowing the leadoff batter to reach in each of his final five innings. However, he held the Cardinals hitless in their first 11 at-bats with runners on base and first seven ABs with runners in scoring position before a two-out RBI single by Lucas Moore in the eighth inning ended his outing.
Arnold got a three-ball count just three times against the 29 total batters he faced.
Over his last three starts vs. Wake Forest, at Virginia Tech and at Louisville, Arnold has allowed three total runs over 19.2 innings of work with 30 strikeouts.
John Abraham picked up the rest of the game out of the bullpen, retiring all four batters he faced to preserve the sweat-free victory.
Even though Arnold needed no more run support, he got plenty of it over the last five innings. FSU added three more home runs over the fifth through eighth innings, accounting for eight of its 10 runs in the series opener by way of the long ball.
Alex Lodise smashed his 14th homer of the season in the fifth inning. Cal Fisher hit his sixth homer of the season, a two-run shot, to extend the FSU lead to 7-1. Brody DeLamielleure closed out the scoring with a leadoff solo homer in the eighth inning, his sixth of the season. Faurot also had a two-run single, bringing his RBI tally on the night to three.
As a whole, FSU’s offense racked up 13 hits, led by three each from Lodise and Faurot.
Game 2 of the series is set for Saturday at 2 p.m. Joey Volini gets the start for FSU against a TBA starter for Louisville.
