Twenty-three runs. Four lead changes. Late game drama. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, the best player on this team and one of the best in the entire country went down at second base in the eighth inning with what looks like a season-ending lower leg injury.
No. 10 FSU baseball clinched the ACC series over Duke with a 12-11 win on Saturday afternoon at Dick Howser Stadium, improving to 21-5 overall and 7-1 in conference play. It is their third consecutive ACC series win. The Noles won it in front of 6,000 fans in a game that lasted three hours and 47 minutes and felt every bit of it. The box score doesn’t tell the whole story.
How It Unfolded
Duke drew first blood in the top of the first when Kaden Smith doubled down the left field line to put RJ Hamilton on third, and Matthew Strand’s sacrifice fly plated the early 1-0 lead.
FSU answered immediately and then some. John Stuetzer got hit by a pitch to open the bottom half, stole second, and the Noles were off to the races. Bailey walked, a Coltin Quagliano error loaded the bases, and Brayden Dowd singled home Stuetzer to tie it. Then the Noles piled on: Eli Putnam’s fielder’s choice scored Bailey, Hunter Carns singled home Dowd, Chase Williams blooped an infield single to score Putnam, and just like that it was 4-1 Florida State before the first inning was even over. The tone was set — or so it seemed.
Duke refused to fold. Tyler Albright and RJ Hamilton combined for a two-run first via doubles in the top of the second to make it 4-4. Kelvyn Paulino Jr. singled home Bailey in the bottom half to push FSU back ahead, 5-4. Then Michael DiMartini hit a two-run homer to left field in the fourth to put Duke on top 6-5.
Michael DiMartini was the thorn in FSU’s side all afternoon. The center fielder finished 2-for-5 with a home run and two RBI, and Duke’s 1B Brooks Perez added two RBI as well on the day. The Blue Devils were scrappy, and this one never felt safe.
Trey Beard took the ball for FSU, and it was not his best outing. He went 5.0 innings, allowing 6 runs on 8 hits, striking out 5. After his gem against Wake Forest a few weeks ago, this was a step back, though the bullpen situation didn’t help.
Brodie Purcell followed with 2.1 innings but allowed 5 more runs on 5 hits, before Chris Knier (2.0 IP, 0 runs) steadied things. Gabe Nard closed it out against his former team with a 0.2-inning save in a high-pressure situation.
The sixth inning was the hinge point of the entire game. Stuetzer singled to lead it off, and then Myles Bailey absolutely crushed one to deep center field for a two-run home run, his 13th of the season, to put FSU ahead 8-6. The crowd erupted. Bailey’s line on the day: 3-for-4 with 2 RBI, 2 runs scored, a walk, and 3 stolen bases. The man was everywhere.
The Noles kept it going in the sixth, with Paulino Jr. singling, Putnam adding an RBI groundout to score Paulino Jr., finishing the inning with FSU up 9-6. Brodie Purcell came on to start the seventh and threw a clean 1-2-3 inning. The momentum felt like it was settling.
Then the seventh happened from the FSU side of things. With Duke burning through its bullpen, FSU put up a three-spot in the bottom of the seventh. Carter McCulley doubled, Stuetzer singled to move him to third, Bailey was intentionally walked, Paulino Jr. walked to score McCulley, Dowd walked to score Stuetzer, and Carns walked to score Bailey, a walk-parade that pushed FSU to 12-6 and seemingly put the game to bed.
But once again, Duke came back. The Blue Devils scored four in the top of the eighth (Collin Anderson doubled to score Jake Lambdin, a wild pitch scored Anderson, Brooks Perez singled home Quagliano, and a bases-loaded walk from Matthew Strand scored another) to make it 12-10, then tacked on one more run via the same walk party FSU received, making it 12-11 heading to the bottom of the eighth.
The Moment Everything Changed
With the game now suddenly hanging by a thread at 12-11, Bailey came to the plate in the bottom of the eighth, was intentionally walked again. He broke for second base on a bad throw, the throw beat him, he slid in, and then the game stopped.
McCulley came around on a throwing error by Duke’s Caleb Anderson and scored an insurance run, but the entire stadium’s attention was elsewhere. Bailey didn’t get up, and the Duke players’ reactions said it all. Bailey suffered a lower leg injury that appears to be season-ending.
Myles Bailey has been one of the best players in college baseball this season. He is the engine of this offense, a leader in the dugout, and a staple on first base. Unfortunately, this team just had the heart of the lineup ripped from its chest. When he went down, there was a familiar sick feeling in the gut for anyone who has followed FSU sports for a while.
It felt like Jordan Travis in 2023. Not because the situations are identical, but because of the gut-punch timing and the status that they held. A team with real aspirations, a guy who has been at the center of everything good this year, and suddenly the worst-case scenario is right there in front of you.
Travis was done for the season after what had been a Heisman-caliber year on a team headed for the playoffs. With Bailey being draft eligible, if this is indeed a serious lower-leg injury, Saturday may have been the last time we see him in garnet and gold. That’s genuinely hard to sit with, even with a series win in hand.
The Noles Held On
Knier got through the eighth, and after a long delay for a fan who had a medical emergency, Gabe Nard came on in the ninth. Anderson singled, Quagliano bunted him to second, DiMartini grounded out, and Perez struck out looking. Series clinched. Win recorded. The celebrations were muted in a way you could feel.
FSU won it 12-11 with 13 hits and some genuinely important moments from guys like McCulley (2 doubles, 2 runs, 3 RBI), Paulino Jr. (1-for-4 with 2 RBI and 2 walks), and Stuetzer (2-for-3 with a steal and 2 runs scored). The depth of this lineup showed up when it needed to, which is the one silver lining here. There are players capable of stepping up. The season is far from over, but it will look different going forward.
The road ahead is harder now. FSU still has a Sunday game to close out the series, then Stetson on Tuesday and a road trip to face a ranked Virginia squad next weekend. There is a lot of baseball left, and there is a lot to sort out depending on the severity of what happened to Bailey.
This team is good enough to keep winning. The pitching, when it’s right, is good enough to give FSU a high ceiling. But Myles Bailey is not a guy you just replace. Someone is going to have to answer the bell. This one looked quite different than the 3-1 pitcher’s duel we saw yesterday. The Noles got the win and will attempt a sweep tomorrow, but there’s no doubt a somber feeling hanging over the weekend. We send our prayers to Myles for a full and fast recovery.
Stay tuned to your source for fan-focused FSU coverage here at Plant The Spear. Thanks for reading and Go Noles!