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FSU Baseball Recap: Noles Suffer Ugly Loss at Home to South Florida

By Ty Ragans

Feb 14, 2017; Port St. Lucie, FL, USA; a general view of a baseball bat and glove on the field during New York Mets spring training workouts at Tradition Field. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 14, 2017; Port St. Lucie, FL, USA; a general view of a baseball bat and glove on the field during New York Mets spring training workouts at Tradition Field. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports /
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Similar to opening day vs VCU, FSU baseball struggled mightily on offense. Pair that with a bullpen implosion and you have an embarrassing mid-week loss.

To the dismay of FSU baseball fans, myself included, the Noles offense struggled on Tuesday. After an offensive explosion in the final two days of the VCU series, the Noles found themselves in another low-scoring battle like the one they lost in the season opener. It looked as if FSU was gonna survive another bad offensive performance due to great starting pitching and defense…. and then the 9th inning happened.

The word of the day is “pathetic”, and it can be applied to FSU’s offense and bullpen equally when speaking of their Tuesday performance. If you would have told me FSU would be one-hit in two of their first four games, I would have had a nice laugh. This actually happened, and I’m not laughing now. It’s early and I have no doubts this offense will be one of the best in the country, but the way they disappeared in two of the four games is concerning.

After a lead-off walk, Taylor Walls was driven in by a Rhett Aplin double in the first inning. In the second frame, Matt Henderson scored on a JC Flowers infield dribbler with some heads-up base running. From that point forward, FSU recorded just one single base runner.

The performance of sophomore starting pitcher Andrew Karp should not be over looked in this abysmal result. Karp showed electric stuff going seven innings, giving up just three hits while recording nine k’s to zero walks. If Karp continues to show the stuff he did on Tuesday, he will push for a spot in the weekend rotation. In the end Karp’s offense and bullpen let him down.

With a two run lead going into the top of the ninth, FSU ended up using five relievers. Chase Haney, Jim Voyles, Alec Byrd, Will Zirzow, and Steven Wells combined for two hit batsmen and three walks. Throw in a wild pitch, a pass ball, and a single and the Noles saw there 2-0 lead turn into a 4-2 deficit in an excruciating ninth inning.

This FSU baseball team is extremely talented and weird things happen in baseball. I still expect this team to make it to Omaha, I think they have a talented roster that is full of kids with great character. But this is something that elite teams can not let happen. It’s a long season and baseball losses shouldn’t be treated like football or even basketball losses should. But the Noles need to find some consistency on offense and hope that Tuesday was an anomaly for the bullpen.

This weekend FSU baseball will host the Samford Bulldogs. Look for our series preview on Friday as we discuss what to watch for as the Noles look to bounce back from this tough loss.

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