After a season largely in cruise control over the final innings, the Florida State baseball team faced its first real challenge of the 2025 season in Sunday's series finale vs. Georgetown.

The Seminoles were locked into a 1-1 game with the Hoyas in the seventh inning and a 3-3 game in the eighth inning, staring down the most realistic possibility of their first loss of the season to date.

A day after delivering his first career home run in Saturday's win, freshman first baseman Myles Bailey came through with his first career game-winning hit on Sunday. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Bailey lined a single into center field to plate Jaxson West and give the Seminoles a 4-3 lead.

That wound up being just enough as No. 7 FSU (11-0) escaped with a 4-3 win at Dick Howser Stadium over the Hoyas (3-8) to remain unbeaten.

"I felt like we were a little sluggish today..." FSU head coach Link Jarrett said. "We were very fortunate to win this one today."

Bailey finished Sunday's game having reached base in all four plate appearances with a double, a single and a pair of walks. He finished the Georgetown series with six hits, four RBI, two runs and no strikeouts.

"His at-bats all weekend were very good and he continues to mature through pitch selection..." Jarrett said. "Proud of his at-bats."

Gage Harrelson gave FSU a 3-1 lead in the seventh inning with a two-run single and BJ Gibson also had a two-hit day starting in place of Chase Williams.

The late surge with three runs over the final two innings at the plate covered up what was a slow start and an overall underwhelming performance from FSU's offense. The Seminoles managed just one run on five hits in their seven innings and were 2 for 8 with runners in scoring position (.250) before they had a hit with runners in scoring position in each of their last two innings.

"I feel like there are guys who are pressing and feel like they have to answer with runs and home runs..." Jarrett said. "We're clearly pressing. Today was probably the worst of the days of it. I still feel like it will move forward, but it hasn't flipped on yet."

FSU was able to survive this slow start at the plate in large part because of another sensational start from sophomore left-handed pitcher Wes Mendes. His third start of the season was much like his first two. He struck out eight batters and walked one for the third straight week, throwing five shutout, three-hit innings.

The sophomore lefty dealt with traffic throughout his outing, recording just two 1-2-3 innings. But he was quite clutch when dealing with that traffic, stranding a runner at third base with a strikeout in both the third and fourth innings vs. the Hoyas.

Behind five shutout innings, he lowered his season earned run average to 0.60, the best among FSU's weekend starters and likely among the best nationally.

"I thought Wes was sharp..." Jarrett said. "It was a stressful day for him pitching and I thought there was some traffic in scoring position in the middle part of this outing and I saw that velocity creep up, some 93s, some 94s. Good to see. Threw some good sliders, some good curveballs."

While Ben Barrett did well out of the bullpen to escape a two-on, no-outs situation he inherited in the seventh inning, he was tagged with two runs on a pair of hits and a walk in the eighth inning to allow the game to be retied.

Peyton Prescott got the final out of the eighth inning for the Seminoles to strand the go-ahead runner at second and then worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning to preserve his first win as a Seminole.

FSU is back in action Tuesday at Howser, kicking off a five-game week with a 6 p.m. game vs. North Florida.