The No. 5 Florida State baseball team got its third consecutive dominant pitching performance of the weekend and cruised to a 5-1 victory Sunday afternoon against visiting Xavier.
The Seminoles swept the season-opening series by a combined margin of 23-4.
Sophomore left-hander Drew Parish was dominant on the mound, giving up one earned run on three hits in six innings. He struck out nine and walked one; his lone mistake was surrendering a solo home run in the fourth.
FSU jumped out to a 2-0 lead when junior catcher Cal Raleigh delivered a two-run double in the first inning. The Seminoles then added three more in the fifth.
Florida State's bullpen again shined on Sunday as freshman right-hander Conor Grady cruised through the seventh and eighth innings, striking out five of the six batters he faced. Freshman lefty Jonah Scolaro then cruised through the ninth to seal the win.
After taking Monday off, the Seminoles will return to action Tuesday at 4 p.m. against visiting USF.
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Florida State (3-0) finished a three-game sweep of Xavier (0-3) Sunday afternoon, beating the Musketeers 5-1 on Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium. The Seminoles got 6.0 innings from starting pitcher Drew Parrish while Cal Raleigh’s two-run double in the first inning provided the winning runs.
“Our guys got after it,” head coach Mike Martin said. “They were not satisfied (with just two wins). We pitched and played good defense. We had some timely hits. It was a very good weekend of baseball for us. No doubt it was all about our pitching.”
Parrish, a sophomore from Rockledge, Fla., donned the Sunday gold uniforms and allowed just three hits, a walk and a home run in six innings. He struck out nine hitters on the afternoon.
“I was throwing my changeup for strikes,” Parrish said about what worked Sunday afternoon. “They are good fastball hitters so having that third pitch in there to keep them off-balance was the key today.”
Raleigh got the scoring started in the first with a two-out, two-run double that plated Jackson Lueck and Drew Mendoza for a 2-0 FSU lead. Raleigh’s 4 RBIs lead FSU after the opening weekend.
“Very important (start),” Raleigh said. “Last year didn’t live up to my individual expectations, but I want to come out and prove to everybody that I can help the team win whatever it takes.”
After perfect second and third innings from Parrish, FSU used four walks, a wild pitch and error and J.C. Flowers’ single to extend the lead to 5-0 through three innings.
With two outs, Rhett Aplin, Raleigh, and Rafael Bournigal walked against Xavier starter Damien Richard (0-1). With the bases loaded, Richard threw a wild pitch that scored Aplin and a subsequent error on Musketeer catcher Nate Soria allowed Raleigh to score as well. With two strikes, Flowers notched his fifth hit of the season, an RBI single to plate Bournigal.
Xavier got one run back in the top of the fourth on Conor Grammes’ first home run of the season, ending a stretch of nine straight hitters retired by Parrish. After a walk, Parrish responded with another seven consecutive hitters retired.
True freshman Conor Grady made his first appearance as a Seminole in the seventh inning to relieve Parrish and pitched a perfect seventh and eighth innings, striking out five of six hitters.
Freshman Jonah Scolaro allowed a hit and struck out one hitter to close the game out in the ninth inning. Grammes had three of Xavier’s four hits in the game.
“Pitching was outstanding all weekend,” Martin said. “The last two were freshmen. Threw a freshman last night (Austin Pollock). Very poised, very proud of them.”
Of Note
– FSU pitching has recorded at least one strikeout in 26 of 27 innings this season, including all nine Sunday.
– Parrish’s nine strikeouts are his most in a regular-season game. Parrish had 12 in the 2017 NCAA regional opener against Tennessee Tech and also nine in the super regional against Sam Houston State.
– FSU pitching struck out 15 hitters Sunday and 43 over the three-game series. It was the first time since the Villanova series in 2013 that FSU struck out at least 14 hitters in three straight games.
– FSU drew eight walks Sunday and struck out just four times.
Road to 1,976
FSU’s win was head coach Mike Martin’s 1,947th of his career. He needs just 29 more to become the winningest coach in college baseball history. He currently trails only Augie Garrido (1,975 wins).
Up Next
Florida State will host USF Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. at Dick Howser Stadium. The Bulls are coming off a 1-2 weekend against No. 7 North Carolina. The Seminoles will throw redshirt junior righthander Andrew Karp.
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