Tuesday brought a sense of normalcy back to the Florida State athletics world.

Five days after a mass shooting on FSU's campus last Thursday, the FSU baseball team held the first athletic event back on campus Tuesday night against Stetson.

After an emotional pregame ceremony where FSU invited students and staff members onto the field while the Marching Chiefs played and a Tallahassee Memorial Hospital trauma surgeon who helped save victims threw out the ceremonial pitch, FSU came out a bit flat in its first game in a week's time.

But after a slow start, the No. 4 Seminoles (30-7) rallied in a major way with an invested crowd behind them, surging ahead with a pair of four-run innings and coasting from there to an 11-6 win over the Hatters (27-15) in front of a sellout crowd at Dick Howser Stadium.

"This was far more than a baseball game today," FSU head coach Link Jarrett said after the game. "The healing opportunity that was provided here was evident to all that were here."

FSU put itself in an early 4-0 hole on Tuesday as the Hatters tagged FSU starter Payton Manca for four runs (two earned) on five hits over 3.1 innings while the FSU offense stranded four runners in its first three innings at the plate.

When the Seminole bats finally woke up, they erased that deficit in one four-run inning, plating their first run on a wild pitch and then tying the score on a three-run home run from Gage Harrelson, his fifth of the season.

FSU then took the lead for good on a leadoff homer from Max Williams to begin the fifth inning (his team-high 15th of the season). However, Williams was ejected in the aftermath of his home run for unsportsmanlike conduct and will be suspended for FSU's series opener at Louisville on Friday.

FSU added two more runs in the fifth on a double from Chase Williams and he came into score as well on an errant pickoff attempt of him at third base from the catcher. Williams finished Tuesday's game 2 for 3 with three runs scored and four stolen bases, raising his batting average to .459.

The Seminoles added three more runs to close out the scoring on a seventh-inning three-run homer from Hunter Carns, his seventh of the season.

After Manca struggled early, the bullpen pieced it together well in the final few innings. Four relievers combined to allow two runs on five hits over 5.2 combined innings. Chris Knier closed out the game, getting out of a jam he inherited in the eighth and working a 1-2-3 ninth to preserve the Seminoles' fifth straight victory.

FSU hits the road this weekend for a conference series at Louisville. Game 1 is set for Friday at 6 p.m.

Join the Osceola for 30 days for free, using promo code Osceola30

Follow The Osceola on Facebook

Follow The Osceola on Twitter

Subscribe to the Osceola's YouTube channel

Subscribe to the Osceola's podcasts on Apple