FSU Baseball: Five Takeaways from Sweep of Troy

The Florida State Seminoles (7-0) swept the Troy Trojans (4-4) by a combined score of 22-12 over the weekend to remain perfect on the season.

Off to their best start since the 2013 season, FSU benefited from great starting pitching all weekend, a starting center fielder who leads the team in hitting, a big sixth inning, and timely hitting with runners in scoring position. Here are our five takeaways from the weekend:

1. Weekend Rotation Rises Without Holton:
With Tyler Holton’s season over after Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ligament in his elbow, Cole Sands, Drew Parrish, and Austin Pollock are left to rise up and lead the pitching staff, and they did just that against Troy over the weekend.

Sands, Parrish, and Pollock, combined to toss 17 1/3 innings against the Trojans, allowing just two earned runs and striking out 16 batters. Sands turned in a dominant performance for a second week in a row, throwing six full innings, allowing just two hits and sitting down five batters by way of the strikeout.

Freshman Austin Pollock’s second career appearance just happened to be his first start as a Seminole. Allowing only five hits and one earned run, Pollock turned in six innings of work where he walked just one batter.

2. J.C. Flowers Stays Hot
J.C. Flowers’ hot season continued into the second weekend of the year. Flowers is hitting .429 with six RBIs and four doubles, matching his season total from last season.

Flowers went 3-for-7 with three RBIs, three walks, and three runs scored over the weekend. The sophomore center fielder was also hit by two pitches against Troy.

3. The Noles are Finding Holes with Runners in Scoring Position
Florida State struggled to find hits with runners in scoring position again on Friday night, hitting just .100 (1-for-10) as a team when threatening. From there, the Seminoles bounced back nicely to hit .375 (9-for-24) as a team on Saturday and Sunday with runners in scoring position to finish with a .294 average for the weekend.

Timely hitting wins ball games, and despite going 1-for-10 at the plate on Friday night, FSU put together a very good weekend at the plate when it mattered the most.

4. FSU Gets Battle-tested
Florida State has been rolling on both offense and defense, and had outscored its opponents by a score of 35-9 entering Saturday’s match-up, where FSU had to fight for nine innings to remain perfect on the season.

After a rough sixth and seventh inning for the Florida State defense, Troy knotted things up at five runs apiece. Two walks and a Jackson Lueck single in the bottom of the ninth loaded the bases for Drew Mendoza, who delivered the Noles’ first walk-off win of the season.

Walk-off wins are always exciting for everyone involved and they do a ton for the teams’ confidence, especially early in the year. Winning convincingly is more comfortable for everyone, but having to fight for a full nine innings shows teams like FSU what they are capable of and gives the young guys a chance to experience crucial in-game situations.

5. Those Magical Sixth Innings 
Six of the teams 22 runs scored over the weekend came in the sixth inning. FSU managed just four hits in the sixth inning over the weekend, but were able to draw six walks and steal three bases. The 4-run sixth inning on Friday night and the 1-run sixth on Saturday proved to be the decisive margin in each of those victories.