FSU baseball: Carson Dorsey shines against Stetson, Noles into winner's bracket

FSU baseball (43-15) moved into the winner's bracket of the Tallahassee Regional with a 7-2 win over the Stetson Hatters. They will face the winner of the Alabama/UCF game that will take place Friday evening. The Nole wasted no time establishing themselves, as Max Williams led off the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run. Daniel Cantu added to the total with a solo home run in the bottom of the second inning, and FSU starting pitcher Carson Dorsey didn't need much afterward. Dorsey was outstanding, nearly throwing the first complete game for the Noles this season. He went 8.2 innings, allowing nine hits, one earned run, one walk, and seven strikeouts on 121 pitches. His performance was what the Noles needed, as their bullpen will be fresh entering the next game with ace Jamie Arnold on the mound.

Marco Dinges and Jaime Ferrer led the way offensively with two hits. Ferrer had a key two-out RBI in the bottom of the third inning. FSU had nearly everything going its way, even the sun contributed two runs for the Noles in the bottom of the fifth. Alex Lodise lifted a routine flyball into leftfield, but the left fielder never saw the ball as he lost it in the sun and two runs scored. The left fielder dropped a routine flyball in the inning before that. Those two runs gave FSU some breathing room, but Dorsey wouldn't need it as he got out of a big jam in the top of the seventh. Stetson had runners on first and third with one out, and Dorsey got a strikeout and a pop-up to strand the runners. I mentioned not walking batters would be key for Dorsey, and he made several big pitches after getting behind in counts a few times. FSU will be back in action on Saturday at 5 p.m.