Carlton Dominant in FSU Baseball Win Over NC State

Since FSU Baseball’s Mike Compton went down with an injury three weeks ago, freshman Drew Carlton has been moved into the starting rotation to replace him. Carlton has made the most of his opportunity and he had by far his most impressive start on Friday night against the NC State Wolfpack, as he pitched 8 shutout innings and the Florida State bats did just enough as FSU won 1-0 over NC State to take the weekend series with one more game still to be played.

Interestingly enough, the Seminoles scored their lone run of the game in the top of the first inning. DJ Stewart kept the inning alive with a 2-out single to right field and Quincy Nieporte made Stewart’s hit count, blooping a single into right center that allowed Stewart to showcase his speed, coming all the way around from first base to score on the single, making it 1-0 FSU. Nieporte, who started the year in a significant slump, batting under .200 for the opening stretch of the season, has turned it around in a big way, now batting .326 on the season with 2 home runs and 24 RBIs.

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Carlton pitched 8 shutout innings, but that is not to say that he did not have to work his way out of jams several times. In the bottom of the first inning, NC State had the bases loaded with just 1 out after a double, walk, and error by Dylan Busby at third base. However, Carlton used a fly out to shallow left field and a groundout to third base to work his way out of a very tough jam.

In the 5th inning, Carlton gave up another double and hit a batter before forcing a fielder’s choice that put runners on the corners with 2 outs, but the resilient Carlton got Preston Palmeiro, the son of former MLB slugger Rafael Palmeiro, to ground out to second to strand 2 more runners.

Other than those 2 innings, the Wolfpack never had more than 1 runner on base in any given inning. Carlton showed just how dominant he can be, going 8 innings and allowed 0 runs on 4 hits, with 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. With the win, Carlton moved to 2-1 on the season and dropped his ERA all the way down to 3.24. Billy Strode came into the game to preserve a 1-run lead for the second-straight night and earned his 10th save of the season as he retired the side in the 9th.