FSU baseball: Baumeister shines, clinches series win over James Madison

FSU baseball (2-0) clinched a series win over James Madison with a 5-1 win Saturday afternoon. FSU starting pitcher Jackson Baumeister was dominant thru four innings, allowing an unearned run, two hits, two walks, and five strikeouts.

Baumeister did a great job of getting ahead of batters early in the count with his fastball. The only criticism would be getting ahead in the count and walking those two batters.

He went out for the fifth inning and began missing high in the zone, which is usually a sign of fatigue. Link Jarrett pulled him from the game after hitting the second batter in the inning who was trying to sacrifice a bunt.

Conner Whittaker came in to relieve Baumeister and finished the final five innings, allowing five hits, no runs, and four strikeouts. He got out of a jam in the top of the fifth inning with runners on second and third and no outs.

James Madison tried to safety squeeze several times, which probably helped FSU more than anything as they could only push their lone run across as the FSU catcher bobbled the ball as he went to apply the tag at the plate for the out.

The FSU offense was held in check early by James Madison’s starting pitcher. They only struck out four times but hit a lot of weak balls as they were trying to pull pitches that were outside.

They had eight hits total but went 5-13 with runners on, but only 2-9 with runners in scoring position. FSU got the lead-off batter on base in two of eight opportunities. Jaime Ferrer went 2-4 with two RBI, and Colton Vincent hit his first career home run to give FSU baseball the eventual winning run.

Jordan Carrion had a hit and an RBI, and DeAmez Ross had a run batted in. FSU saw what it needed to see from Baumeister and Whittaker on the mound. They’ll look for the sweep Sunday at 11:30 a.m. as freshman Jamie Arnold takes the mound.