A week ago, the vibes around Florida State baseball were not great. A four-game losing streak, capped by a sweep at the hands of Georgia Tech, had knocked the Noles from No. 5 in the country down to No. 8 and had fans wondering if the bats were ever going to show up again. Seven days later? Four straight wins, a series sweep over an ACC opponent, and a team that suddenly looks a lot more like the one that spent most of March knocking on the door of the top five. What a difference a week makes, but welcome to college baseball.
FSU (28-11, 12-6 ACC) ran its record to 4-0 on the week with a midweek win over Stetson and a full three-game sweep of Notre Dame at Dick Howser Stadium. It was the fifth series win in six weekends of ACC play for Link Jarrett’s group, and it could not have come at a better time. Let’s take a closer look.
Tuesday: Carns Carries the Bats in a Streak-Snapping Win Over Stetson
The midweek matchup with Stetson was exactly what this team needed. After being outscored and outplayed in Atlanta, the Noles returned home and let Hunter Carns do Hunter Carns things. The sophomore catcher went 3-for-5 with a home run, a double, and a career-high five RBI, single-handedly accounting for the bulk of the offense in a 9-2 win.
Carns’ three-run bomb in the third turned a 1-1 game into a 4-1 FSU lead, and his two-run double in the seventh helped blow it open as part of a five-run frame. Cooper Whited got the start and worked 3.0 strong innings, and four relievers followed to hold the Hatters to one run on six hits the rest of the way.
Jarrett wasn’t exactly thrilled with the clean scoreline (three FSU errors will do that), but after the week they’d just had, any win was a good win. The streak was over. Time to turn the page to ACC play.
Friday: Wes Mendes, Two Three-Run Bombs, and a Run-Rule
Friday night was about as clean a response game as you could draw up. Wes Mendes was filthy on the bump, tossing 6.0 shutout innings with seven strikeouts and just two walks on 102 pitches, improving to 7-2 on the year and matching his career high in wins. The left-hander only gave up three hits, and Brodie Purcell came on in the seventh to close out the shutout as FSU run-ruled Notre Dame 11-0.
The story on offense was the sixth inning. A seven-run outburst, capped by two separate three-run home runs from freshman John Stuetzer and redshirt senior Eli Putnam, ended things early. Stuetzer’s shot traveled 416 feet to dead center on the first pitch he saw, and Putnam followed with his own no-doubter to left a few batters later.
Make no mistake, this was a statement game. Best starter on the staff, a lineup that finally got going, a seven-inning shutout. Exactly what the doctor ordered.
Saturday: Seven-Run Lead, a Scare, and a Series Win
Saturday was a little less comfortable, but the Noles clinched the series with a 9-7 win that got a lot more interesting than it needed to.
Facing Notre Dame ace Jack Radel (a guy who’d thrown six-plus innings in four straight starts with a 2.82 ERA), FSU jumped him early and often. Four runs in the first, two more in the second, and the Noles chased him after three innings with six runs on seven hits. John Stuetzer had another huge day with a career-high-tying four RBI, including a two-run triple that stretched the lead to 9-2 in the fourth.
Then the sixth inning happened. Trey Beard, who had been excellent through five (two runs, three hits, seven strikeouts, zero walks), was sent back out for the sixth, and it aged poorly. A double, walk, double, and single later, the Irish had four runs in, and the lead was down to 9-6. Chase Williams gunned down a runner trying to score from second to finally end the bleeding, but suddenly, this was a one-score game with three innings to go.
Credit to the bullpen and credit to the defense, because after that inning, the Noles locked it down. Notre Dame scratched one more across in the ninth but got no closer. A win is a win, and this one locked up the series.
Sunday: The Comeback Sweep
Sunday had every bit of the vibe of a game the Noles were going to let slip away. Cooper Whited made his first weekend start of the season and battled through 3.1 innings, but the Irish took a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh and FSU’s bats had gone quiet.
Then the two-out magic happened. With two outs in the seventh and runners on the corners, Nathan Cmeyla came through with the biggest swing of the series, a triple to left-center that bounced all the way to the wall and cleared the bases to put FSU ahead 5-4. Brody DeLamielleure followed with an RBI double to make it 6-4, and just like that, the Noles had the lead they’d ride to a sweep.
It was the kind of inning that, two weeks ago, this team couldn’t buy. All six FSU runs on the day, and eight of their 11 hits, came with two outs. Brodie Purcell got the win with a perfect seventh, and Chris Knier slammed the door for his third save of the year with 2.0 clean innings to finish it.
Final Thoughts
Long story short, this was the week FSU needed. A bounce-back 4-0 after an 0-4 disaster is exactly how you steady a ship that looked like it was listing a week ago. The Noles are now 12-6 in the ACC with five series wins in six weekends, and the top half of the conference standings is very much in play. No, Jarrett’s former team is not a powerhouse, but the Noles needed this one.
The bullpen looked sharp (Purcell and Knier especially), the top of the lineup came alive, and the freshman Stuetzer was on fire, driving in seven runs across the two games he played in the series. That’s the kind of production from a young bat that can change a season.
Up next,the Noles hit the road for a full week starting Tuesday at in-state opponent North Florida in Jacksonville, with first pitch at 6 p.m. ET. From there, it’s a cross-country trip to Palo Alto for a weekend series at Stanford from April 24-26. Not an easy week, and certainly not one where the Noles can afford to take their foot off the gas after getting things rolling again. But after the way they just played? I still like where this team is headed. Thanks for reading and Go Noles!