Florida State's weekend rotation was always going to have a bad start at some point after such unanimous success to start the 2025 season.
Unfortunately for the Seminoles, that finally happened Friday night vs. Miami. Shockingly, it was FSU ace Jamie Arnold who had the first misstep of the season in the weekend rotation.
A frontrunner for national pitcher of the year awards and a likely top-five pick in this year's MLB Draft, Arnold had the worst outing of his FSU career Friday night, allowing a career-high six runs on seven hits over just four innings.
That early hole proved to be too much to overcome for the No. 5 Seminoles (19-3, 4-1 in ACC), who fell 9-6 to the rival Hurricanes (14-10, 1-4) in the second game of the series at Mark Light Field in Coral Gables.
In FSU's 16th weekend-series game of the season, this was FSU's first weekend loss.
There was no clear thing that was wrong with FSU's ace in his start against the Hurricanes, which happened to fall on his 21st birthday. His velocity wasn't noticeably down and he didn't appear hurt whatsoever.
Arnold just didn't seem to have his typically great command (three walks after he had four on the season in 20.2 innings) or his typically great putaway stuff (just two strikeouts in four innings). He was barreled up more Friday night by the Hurricanes than he probably had been in his first four starts combined.
It was the first time in 16 weekend games that an FSU starter allowed more than two runs. Even more than that, Arnold's six earned runs surrendered vs. Miami were nearly as many as the eight FSU's three weekend starters had allowed in 84.1 combined innings entering that game.
Early on, FSU seemed poised for another big night at the plate, loading the bases with one out in the top of the first. However, FSU plated just one run and left the bases loaded.
As it turned out, that proved to be foreshadowing for the Seminoles' offense in Friday's game. FSU plated two runs in the first two innings but left five runners on base.
The Seminoles were set down in order just once in their nine innings at the plate Friday night, constantly putting traffic on the basepaths. But after delivering so many big hits in Thursday's series opener, they never had anything resembling that in the second game.
FSU was 3 for 16 (.188) with runners on base and 1 for 9 (.111) with runners in scoring position through the first eight innings.
Four of the first five FSU batters in the ninth reached on singles and the Seminoles twice brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning. However, a strikeout from Gage Harrelson ended FSU's comeback bid.
FSU finished 3 for 14 (.214) with runners in scoring position and stranded 13 men on base in the loss.
Up Next
The rubber match of the series is set for a 6 p.m. start on Saturday. FSU will throw sophomore LHP Wes Mendes (4-0, 0.66 ERA) against Miami starter Brian Walters (2-0, 5.62 ERA).
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