FSU baseball: Arnold shines, Noles roll past Michigan State to stay unbeaten

FSU baseball improved to (8-0) on Saturday afternoon in the First Pitch Classic Tournament with an 11-2 win over the Michigan State Spartans. Jamie Arnold was the winning pitcher, going six innings, allowing seven hits with seven strikeouts and zero walks.

FSU got on the board first in the top of the second inning when MaGuire Holbrook singled to left center for an RBI. Alex Lodise laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Daniel Cantu. Daniel Cantu had an RBI single in the top of the third, and Cameron Smith hit an inside-the-park home run to drive in two more to make it 5-0 in the top of the sixth. FSU added one more in the top of the seventh, and Jaime Ferrer hit his first home run of the season in the top of the eighth. Arnold got out of a couple of jams earlier, and the defense made some solid plays behind him. Noah Short came on and went 1.2 innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits, a walk, and two strikeouts. John Abraham faced one batter in the bottom of the eighth to get the final out in the inning and set the Spartans down 1-2-3 to finish the game.

Daniel Cantu led the offense, going 3-5 with an RBI. McGuire Holbrook went 3-4 with two RBI. James Tibbs II went 2-6, and the Noles had 13 total hits. FSU batters struck out 13 times, which has been uncharacteristic in this young season, and walked six times. I mentioned Michigan State was terrible defensively, and they had five errors that didn't help their cause. The Noles will be back in action tonight against Illinois at 7:30 in a game that would have been Friday night. I expect Cam Leiter to be on the mound for the Noles. The Ilinois preview is here. Stay tuned to Chopchat for more game analysis later.