No. 11 Florida State baseball delivered one for the Dick Howser highlight reel on Tuesday night, run-ruling Bethune-Cookman 12-1 in seven innings while the pitching staff combined to throw a no-hitter. It was a dominant, clinical performance from start to finish — exactly what you want out of a midweek tune-up heading into a top-10 series.
FSU entered at 16-3 overall and 3-0 in ACC play, coming off a road sweep of previously No. 12 Wake Forest that sent the Noles soaring up the national rankings. Tuesday was about staying sharp, protecting arms, and, as it turned out, doing something pretty special on the mound.
A Pitching Performance to Remember
The headliner was the combined no-hitter. Florida State’s pitching staff held Bethune-Cookman hitless through all seven innings, limiting the Wildcats to just a lone run and sending them home with nothing to show in the hit column. It’s the kind of performance that gets etched it the history books of a historic program as only the eleventh no-hitter in school history.
Cooper Whited started things off for FSU with 3.1 hitless innings and 6 strikeouts. After a pair of hit pitches and a walk loaded the bases, Micah Posey handed the ball to Brodie Purcell, who proceeded to hit another batter to bring in the game’s only run. Purcell went 1.2 innings with a strikeout. Cole Stokes took over in the sixth inning and closed out the game with 2 innings or work and recorded two strikeouts. Brodie Purcell collected his first win of the season.
The Seminoles had just used seven pitchers over the entire Wake Forest series, never using a reliever more than once, meaning most of the staff entered Tuesday fresh and ready to go. Link Jarrett deployed that depth beautifully, cycling arms while keeping everyone’s pitch counts manageable ahead of the NC State weekend.
The no-hitter also continues a trend of dominant pitching from this staff. Just last Saturday against Wake Forest, junior lefty Trey Beard struck out a career-high 14 batters in 6.2 one-hit innings, taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning, with John Abraham finishing the final 2.1 hitless frames to earn his second save of the season. That was after Wes Mendes threw a seven-inning complete-game shutout. Clearly, this pitching staff is on a different level right now.
Offense Does Its Part
The offense made sure the pitchers had plenty of breathing room, plating 12 runs in seven frames to trigger the run rule. The Wildcats’ starter, Michael Benedict, came in with a 5.93 ERA across 13.2 innings this season, and FSU made him pay early and often before the bullpen had a chance to settle things down. After some early inconsistency, FSU’s offense has now put up 10+ runs in six of its last nine games with five run-rule wins. This team is clicking.
Yes, this is a game FSU should have won easily, and they did, but Bethune-Cookman entered at 14-6 with a midweek win over USF and a close loss 5-2 loss at Miami. This isn’t a pushover program. They’ve made multiple appearances in the Tallahassee Regional in recent years and traditionally play tough in midweek spots. FSU made it look easy anyway. FSU is now 11-0 all-time against Bethune-Cookman, with every game taking place in Tallahassee.
Up Next: A Top-10 Showdown at Howser
There’s no time to soak this one in. In a top-11 matchup at Dick Howser Stadium, the Seminoles host No. 10 NC State from March 20-22. The series begins Friday at 6 p.m., followed by game two Saturday at 2 p.m. and the finale Sunday at 1 p.m. All games will be streaming on ACCNX.
This is the kind of ACC series that can define a season. Two ranked teams, a packed Howser crowd, and a pitching staff that is absolutely locked in right now. Was what we saw in Winston-Salem real? Here is their chance to prove it. The Noles are rolling. The arms are dealing. And Dick Howser is about to get wild this weekend. Thanks for reading and Go Noles!