FSU baseball clinches series at No. 8 TCU behind Jaime Ferrer's firepower
To call it impressive would be an understatement.
Heading into the weekend, the expectation for Florida State against the No. 8 ranked TCU Horned Frogs (3-3) was a single win, if that. Instead, the Seminoles (6-0) clinched the series with a 10-8 victory Saturday and will look for the sweep Sunday against the reigning Big 12 Champions.
The Seminoles fell behind early as freshman left-handed pitcher Jamie Arnold struggled in his second start. The damage could have been much worse if not for a triple play and some questionable base-running mistakes by the Horned Frogs. The triple play in the first inning was the Seminoles' first triple play since May 3rd, 2009.
Connor Whittaker earned his second win in as many relief appearances Saturday, relieving Arnold after 2.2 innings and allowing two earned runs over 2.2 innings of work himself.
After falling behind 2-0, the Seminoles were able to take the lead in the fifth inning off a two-run homer by Jaime Ferrer. Similar to Friday night's win, the Seminoles saved the fireworks for the later innings as a five-run seventh inning put the game out of reach for the second straight night.
Ferrer's second two-run homer of the afternoon capped off a three-hit day for the talented sophomore. Cam Smith also contributed three hits and a home-run on Saturday.
The Horned Frogs did not go away lightly as they plated a pair of runs in both the seventh and eighth innings to make the game uncomfortable for the Seminoles. Andrew Armstrong closed the door in the ninth with three groundouts to record the save and clinch the game and the series for the Seminoles.
Without the offense from Ferrer, the game could have looked drastically different as TCU found their offense late as well. In four career games against TCU, Ferrer has 8 hits, 6 RBI's, and two home-runs.
Though he will get the highlights, it was the Seminoles' offense altogether that was too much for TCU to overcome in the end. Seven out of the nine batters in the order today had hits and four batters had multi-hit games.
For the fifth time in six games this season, FSU plated double-digit runs on double-digit hits.
Up Next
The Seminoles will look to complete the sweep on Sunday at 2 p.m. EST with Carson Montgomery on the hill for the Seminoles.