Florida State baseball’s offense wasn’t at its best on Tuesday night, but timely hitting helped the Seminoles to a 5-2 win over Jacksonville on May 5 at Dick Howser Stadium.
The No. 14 Seminoles (34-14, 15-9 ACC) were victorious in the program’s final midweek contest of the year thanks to the bats of John Stuetzer, Nathan Cmeyla and Brayden Dowd, who knocked in FSU’s three runs and accounted for five of the team’s 10 hits.
Stuetzer, who went 1-for-4, blasted his seventh home run of the season deep to left field in the fifth inning to score the Seminoles’ first run, and Cmeyla, 1-for-3, came up with a pair of RBI on a sacrifice fly and single in the fifth and seventh innings.
Dowd gave the Seminoles insurance in the eighth inning with a two-run blast to center, and he finished the night 3-for-5 with the homer and a double.
Those at-bats helped FSU overcome an early 2-0 hole, as Jacksonville scored a pair of runs in the third inning thanks to a wild pitch and an RBI single from Derek Bermudez.
The two runs from the Dolphins came after Cade O’Leary replaced starter Cooper Whited in the third inning. Whithed threw 2.2 innings, and he struck out four and allowed two hits, and was charged with the two earned runs. O’Leary took over with two outs and runners at the corners, and his first pitch went wild, and six pitches later Bermudez came up with the single.
FSU had multiple chances to blow the game open, but left 12 runners on base. The Seminoles left the bases loaded in the fourth inning, with a Carter McCulley ground out ending that threat, before a pair of strikeouts from Eli Putnam and Cal Fisher ended the fifth inning with the bases loaded and no runs scored in either scenario.
Dowd’s eighth-inning blast not only provided insurance runs, but it pushed FSU’s batting average with runners on base to .253% (4-for-17), which reflected an up-and-down night at the plate for the Seminoles.
The bullpen held Jacksonville hitless after the pair of hits O’Leary allowed. Brodie Purcell, Cole Stokes, and Kevin Mebil accounted for nine of the 14 total strikeouts. Both Purcell and Mebil recorded four strikeouts each, with Mebil striking out the side in the ninth inning to win the game.
What’s next for FSU baseball? A road trip to Clemson
Liam Rooney covers Florida State athletics for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at LRooney@gannett.com or on Twitter @__liamrooney.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU baseball’s timely hitting leads to 5-2 win over Jacksonville
Reporting by Liam Rooney, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
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