Much like the first weekend of the 2025 Florida State baseball season, Tuesday's first midweek game followed a similar blueprint.

Pitch well and let the rest take care of itself.

After allowing just two total runs and one earned run in three games vs. James Madison, the ninth-ranked Seminoles (4-0) were again close to their run-prevention best in Tuesday's game at USF (2-2), coming away with a 6-2 win over the Bulls at USF Baseball Stadium.

There was a bit more activity on the basepaths Tuesday compared to the weekend series vs. JMU. USF had nine hits, worked three walks and was hit by two pitches. But the FSU pitching staff clutched up, limiting the Bulls to a .200 batting average (3 for 15) with runners on base and stranding 10 runners.

For the third straight game, a new transfer addition got the start on the mound for the Seminoles. This time, it was Jacksonville transfer Evan Chrest getting the nod.

He faced traffic in all five innings he was on the mound, but managed it extraordinarily well, allowing just one run in his final inning over 4.2 innings of work. He allowed five hits, but erased runners with a double play, a caught stealing and got a clutch strikeout to strand two runners in the fourth inning. He struck out four batters, walked one and hit one.

The one run he allowed came on a pair of fluky fifth-inning hits, one of which bounced weird in the outfield to get past Gage Harrelson to turn a single into a triple and the other of which was a high chopper off USF's infield turf.

John Abraham replaced Chrest with the tying run at the plate and two outs in the fifth inning and got a strikeout to escape the jam with no further damage. He then worked out of a jam he made for himself in the sixth inning with a strikeout and a groundout after loading the bases on a pair of walks and a hit-by-pitch.

Ben Barrett had the seventh and eighth innings for the Seminoles and worked them clean but then got into a jam in the ninth with a pair of no-out singles and a sacrifice fly. Connor Hults relieved him and walked the only batter he faced before Peyton Prescott retired both batters he faced via strikeout and groundout to preserve the victory and record his second career save.

Some of the returning players at the top of the FSU lineup didn't get off to the hottest start this season.

But by Tuesday, those top hitters were rounding into form. The top six players in FSU's lineup each had a hit Tuesday and the top four combined for seven of the Seminoles' 11 hits.

After stranding runners in scoring position in each of the first three innings, nine-hole hitter Chase Williams got FSU on the board with a two-out, two-run triple that landed just fair on the right-field line.

Max Williams had his second homer of the season, a mammoth shot to right-center to extend the lead to 3-1, Jaxson West got his long-awaited first hit of the season to bring home a run on a blooper into shallow center to make it 4-1 and Cal Fisher gave the Seminoles some much-needed insurance with a two-run single in the top of the ninth.

FSU stranded nearly as many runners on base as USF (9), including four in the first three innings, but were 5 of 14 (.357) with two outs, knocking in three of their six runs with two outs.

FSU returns home this weekend for a three-game series vs. Penn. First pitch of Friday's series opener is set for 5 p.m. with Jamie Arnold on the mound for the Seminoles.