FSU baseball: Wyatt Crowell stymies Pitt Panthers to clinch series win

FSU baseball (11-3, 2-0 ACC) defeated the Pitt Panthers 5-3 in Wyatt Crowell’s first career start to clinch their first ACC series win.

The Noles have needed quality starting pitching, so Link Jarrett moved Crowell into the starting rotation for his first career start. Crowell answered the call with six innings, 10 strikeouts, four walks, and no runs allowed.

It looked like he might not make it out of the fourth inning when he walked the first two batters, and the next batter got a base hit to load the bases with no outs. Crowell showed why he’s one of the top arms in college baseball by striking out the next two batters and inducing a ground ball to get out of the jam.

The FSU bats wasted no time jumping on the Pitt starting pitcher. The Noles scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth. Titan Kamaka and James Tibbs walked before Jamie Ferrer singled, Jordan Carrion doubled, and Cam Smith singled to score two runs.

Pitt trimmed the lead to 4-2 behind a two-run home run in the top of the seventh, but FSU answered with one run in the bottom of the frame.

Carrion and Smith had two hits each. Doug Kirkland, Brennen Oxford, and Jamie Arnold pitched out of the bullpen with five strikeouts and five walks. Arnold tried to finish the game and got one out in the top of the ninth before walking back-to-back batters.

He struck out the next batter but allowed a single up the middle to trim the lead to 5-3 before walking the next batter to load the bases with two outs.

Andrew Armstrong came in and struck out the final batter to end the Pitt rally. FSU pitchers walked 10 batters in the game, which is way too many.

FSU did a great job jumping on Pitt early in the game and will go for the series sweep Sunday at 3 p.m.