Entering the 2024 season, there were plenty of people waiting to see how much better the Florida State baseball pitching staff would be.

The degree of difficulty will go up over the next few weeks, but there's no denying the Seminole staff aced the first test on Opening Day.

Four FSU pitchers combined for a four-hit shutout of Butler on Friday night at Dick Howser Stadium, striking out 22 combined batters in an 11-0 win to kick off the Seminoles' 2024 campaign.

It was a fitting number of runs for the Seminoles in their first game since legendary FSU baseball coach Mike Martin Sr. passed away two weeks ago.

"Proud of that performance all the way around. On top of it, to score 11 runs, it's hard to believe. It's really cool," FSU head coach Link Jarrett said after the win. "That was for you. That was for 11. He would have been proud of this. This was his type of game."

That impressive showing on the mound started from the very first pitches from FSU starting pitcher Cam Leiter. The sophomore UCF transfer struck out five of the first six batters he faced in his first career start for the Seminoles.

He struck out the side in three of his five innings and finished with a career-high 13 strikeouts over five innings of work, allowing no runs on one hit with two walks.

"I had a good outing," Leiter said. "I was just trying to put up zeroes, clean innings, let the guys go to work."

No moment was bigger for him than in the fourth inning, when he struck out three straight batters after allowing the first two batters of the frame to reach base on a walk and a single.

"He dug deep and executed pitches and got himself out of it," Jarrett said. "You have to relieve yourself as a starter if you're going to extend and get into the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth inning of thse games. He did that in the fourth inning. It was really impressive."

Junior-college transfer Carson Dorsey picked it up from there and threw two scoreless frames with five strikeouts.

Freshman Hudson Rowan also struck out two in a scoreless eighth inning and then fellow freshman Matt Sauser pitched the ninth with two more strikeouts, preserving the shutout.

FSU's offense didn't get off to the fastest start in its season opener. The Seminoles scored three runs in the opening two innings, all on wild pitches by Butler starting pitcher Justin Hornschmeier.

Then, FSU was held off the board for the next three innings despite some loud contact which didn't result in runs.

FSU broke the game wide open in the seventh inning, however, when James Tibbs III hit the team's first home run of the season, a grand slam, to make it 7-0 Seminoles.

"It was a massive moment," Jarrett said of Tibbs' home run. "We needed that game to be blown open a little bit because baseball is crazy. We were pitching well and our at-bats were good, but that game could have been 3-3."

UNF transfer Alex Lodise's first career hit, an infield single, plated UCF transfer Drew Faurot in the seventh inning to make it 8-0.

To cap off the scoring, Alabama transfer Max Williams and freshman Cal Fisher hit back-to-back homers in their first career FSU at-bats to reach double-digit runs and stretch the lead to 11-0.

Overall, the Seminoles racked up 14 hits, 10 walks and only three strikeouts in the victory.

"Just proud of the guys. From top to bottom, first pitch to last, I'm proud of the way we played," Jarrett said.

FSU and Butler will play Game 2 of the weekend series Saturday at noon (moved up from 2 p.m. due to weather). It will again be broadcast on ACC Network Extra.