Florida State had to sweat out the opening game of its series vs. Georgetown a bit Friday night before coming away with a victory.
There was no sweat whatsoever shed by the Seminoles on Saturday.
No. 7 FSU (10-0) left no doubt in the second game of the weekend, coming away with a commanding 11-2 win over Georgetown (3-7) at Dick Howser Stadium.
The near-shutout, which was lost in the ninth inning, was set up on the mound by the best start of Joey Volini's young FSU career on the mound. After the USF transfer left-handed pitcher was good in his first two starts as a Seminole, he was excellent in his third start vs. the Hoyas.
Volini had a new career-long outing for the third straight week Saturday when he threw six shutout innings and allowed just two hits and one walk. He retired the first seven batters he faced, stranded two runners in the third with a clutch strikeout and then retired 10 of the final 11 batters he faced starting with that third-inning escape.
"This starts on the mound and Volini was the Volini we'd seen a lot in our training..." FSU head coach Link Jarrett said. "The breaking ball, the command, the depth. It had life, it was late. I think that was probably the key to getting through it the way he did was the curveball."
The junior pitcher seemed to only get more effective with his offspeed pitches as the outing progressed. He struck out a career-high 11 batters (six swinging, five looking) vs. Georgetown, fanning six of the last seven batters he faced.
With six shutout innings, Volini lowered his season earned run average to 1.10 through three starts.
"It was crazy. It goes back to the preparation throughout the week," Volini said of his career-best performance. "In the bullpen, getting my fastball down, my slider plays well off that, the curveball was really good today."
Even though run support wasn't required much in Saturday's game, the FSU offense delivered plenty of it. FSU plated 11 runs on 15 hits over eight innings at the plate.
11 different FSU batters had a hit in the win. Alex Lodise opened the scoring with an RBI double in the third inning, finishing with a pair of hits for his seventh multi-hit game in the last nine games. He's hitting .513 in the last seven games after an 0 for 5 showing on Opening Day.
Myles Bailey extended the FSU lead to 5-0 in the fourth inning on his first career home run to right field, also adding a double in the following at-bat.
"It felt great. That's obviously a dream come true to hit a home run in college baseball..." Bailey said of his first career home run. "I've been waiting for awhile."
After two runs scored on a throwing error in the sixth inning, Max Williams made it a four-run inning with his third homer of the season, a mammoth two-run shot to right-center to extend the lead to 9-0.
In a promising trend for the offense, the Seminoles had more walks (five) than strikeouts (four) at the plate in Saturday's game.
Brady Louck and Payton Manca each worked around walks for scoreless seventh and eighth innings, respectively, before the Hoyas broke up the shutout in the ninth with a two-run homer from Jackson Thomas off David Barrett in his return from Tommy John surgery.
Still, FSU's pitching staff held Georgetown to just three hits in Saturday's game with 14 strikeouts but also six walks, five of them by relievers.
With the win, FSU is off to a 10-0 start for the second consecutive season. It's only the second time since 1971-72 that the Seminoles have started 10-0 in consecutive seasons.
FSU goes for the sweep of the Hoyas Sunday at 11 a.m. with sophomore LHP Wes Mendes (2-0, 0.90 ERA) on the mound.
