FSU baseball uses team-record 9th grand slam to blow past Ospreys

It was a record-setting day in many aspects for Florida State baseball as the Seminoles blew out the North Florida Ospreys 10-2 in their midweek matchup.

Marco Dinges' third grand slam of the season in the third inning set a new program record for grand slams in a single season by a Florida State team. Dinges later singled to bring in a run, giving him five RBIs on the day. This tied a career-high for him, a mark that he has hit twice already this season.

"That was a key moment," head coach Link Jarrett said. "That grand slam was huge. It's a fun thing. It's a momentum changer, a game changer and his at-bats were good really all day... Marco changed it for us with that swing."

Cam Smith's single in the fourth inning allowed him to reach base for the 50th straight game — a mark that is now good enough for 10th all-time.

By the end of the fourth inning, the Seminoles (32-8) had exploded to an 8-1 lead. The sole Ospreys run to that point came via a solo home run by Cherokee Nichols in the second inning.

James Tibbs homered for the 17th time this season and he contributed three RBIs in the win. DeAmez Ross hit a sac fly in the 4th that also brought in a run. Max Williams earned his team-leading fourth triple.

On the mound for Florida State, Matt Sauser made his first start as a Seminole in an opener role. He was relieved by John Abraham, who put in three innings of work while only allowing a single hit and striking out four batters. Abraham earned the win, improving to 2-1 on the season.

"That's important that we saw that," Jarrett said of Abraham. "His last couple of stints were not that. We had seen him to that a good bit but unfortunately this past weekend it wasn't quite like that. It was good for him - it was good for us - to see that again to know that he is back on the horse and had command of that thing."

Hudson Rowan, Yoel Tejeda and Ryan Denison finished the night out for the Seminoles as the depleted pitching staff was able to have a relatively stress-free outing.

North Florida (18-20) added a run in the eighth inning with another solo home run off of Tejeda.

Florida State gets back on the road to travel to Durham, N.C., for a weekend series against No. 7 Duke. Friday's game begins at 6 p.m. and will be televised on ACC Network Extra. Starters for Friday are currently to be determined.