FSU baseball: Takeaways from walk-off win over Georgia Southern

FSU baseball (23-13, 10-8 ACC) increased their winning streak to five games with come from behind 6-5 walk-off win over Georgia Southern Wednesday night.

The Noles made the win more difficult than it needed to be, with Georgia Southern capitalizing on two out opportunities early in the game to take a 4-0 lead. Jackson Nezuh wasn’t sharp in a spot start but went three innings and allowed three earned runs.

However, the bullpen was solid, scattering six hits and allowing two earned runs, five walks, and 13 strikeouts. I wrote in the preview that FSU batters should have some success against the Georgia Southern pitching staff.

The difference in the game was Georgia Southern had a couple of clutch hits, and FSU wasted several opportunities with runners in scoring position.

FSU left 14 runners on base, and seven of those were with Alex Toral hitting, who finished the game 0-6 with four strikeouts. However, it was the Jordan Carrion show, which happened to be his birthday.

Carrion sparked things with a walk in the bottom of the fifth, scoring on a Colton Vincent double. It was Carrion’s two-run double in the bottom of the ninth, tying the game 5-5.

The Noles got the bases loaded with one out. Brock Mathis struck out, which led to Tyler Martin working a walk to score Reese Albert for the winning run.

Takeaways

• FSU hitters have good at-bats for the most part
• FSU bullpen was solid
• FSU has to do better with runners on base

I know FSU wasn’t having the success they wanted early in the game. However, they had some solid at-bats and worked some walks(while also getting hit four times. I only remember a couple of at-bats where the hitters looked lost at the plate. They had only struck out six times through nine innings, and four of those were from Alex Toral.

As I mentioned, the bullpen was solid. Aside from a couple of pitches that resulted in home runs, the pitchers did a solid job of getting hitters out. Davis Hare, Jackson Baumeister, and Wyatt Crowell looked excellent.

The only thing with the runners left on base deal is most of that was on one hitter in Alex Toral. He had been swinging the bat better of late, but not putting the ball in play in those situations has to decrease. He’s striking out 43 percent of the time, which is too much for a guy expected to drive in runs.

Overall, it was a solid win against a good team. The guys didn’t quit when things were not going their way, and overall, the game wouldn’t have been close if they capitalized on their opportunities. Had they lost the game, I wouldn’t have been too upset because they created opportunities to score. They are in a prime position to make some noise this weekend against Clemson. Here’s to hoping they can keep playing well.