After suffering their first opening day loss since 1998 on Friday, the Florida State Seminoles (1-1) returned to their winning ways scoring 12 runs on 12 hits to breeze past Virginia Commonwealth (1-1) on Saturday, 12-3.
“We were anxious, trying to get that first win,” pitcher Cole Sands said following his start. “It’s good we got that under our belt now, and we can just play.”
The Good: After being held to one hit on Friday night, the Seminoles’ offense found life against a VCU staff that seemed untouchable less than 24 hours prior. Rhett Alpin sent a towering shot towards the circus in the fourth inning for his first home run as a Seminole and the first for FSU in 2017 which sparked a 5-run inning.
“[Its] Amazing how a dinger can wake everybody up,” Mike Martin said. “The first one of the year, a big lift for our ball club.”
The Noles went 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position and hit .353 as a team on the day led by Jackson Lueck’s 3-for-4, 3-RBI day.
The Bad: The Rams were hitless going into the fourth inning when Brett Willett singled back up the middle with two outs. VCU was only able to find four more hits on the afternoon and hit .147 as a team and left 10 runners on base.
The Ugly: VCU’s pitching staff could not emulate the opening night success; the Rams held the Florida State offense hitless in the first two innings, but back-to-back two-out walks opened the door for Jackson Lueck to shoot a ball into left field scoring both J.C. Flowers and Tyler Daughtry. Five Rams’ hurlers combined to walk nine Noles, giving up 11 earned runs and only striking out four batters.
Studs of the Game: Cole Sands was phenomenal in his first start as a sophomore. The hard-throwing righty was one out away from getting out of the sixth inning, but Matt Henderson’s misplayed ball at second, and Dylan Busby’s throwing error kept the sixth inning alive and forced Martin to pull Sands to keep his pitch count two pitches shy of 90.
Duds of the Game: After a 6-0 season with a 1.57 ERA in 2016, Michael Dailey gave up six earned runs in 3.1 innings pitched for the Rams. Dailey surrendered five hits while walking five Seminoles and threw 82 pitches.
Extra Innings: Tyler Holton will be on the bump for the Noles on Sunday; first pitch will be at 12:30 p.m. EST.
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