GAINESVILLE -- While the result wasn't quite as drastic, the feeling was very much the same.

The same issues continue to show up for the Florida State baseball team during its first losing streak of the 2025 season.

With the season series on the line vs. rival Florida on Tuesday night, FSU's offense once again struggled to find hits in big moments while the pitching staff gave away too many free passes and couldn't come through in enough big moments.

That combination of events proved too much for the No. 9 Seminoles (25-7) to overcome as they fell 5-4 at Condron Family Ballpark in the rubber match of the series vs. rival Florida (20-15) Tuesday night.

FSU has now dropped three straight games after never losing consecutive games during its first 29 games of the season.

FSU finished the loss 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position, managing just three hits over the final seven innings at the plate after they had five hits in the first 2+ innings. The Seminoles' lineup grounded into three double plays and struck out 12 times.

"Tough ballgame. We clearly had some chances..." FSU head coach Link Jarrett said after the loss. "They have very talented arms. From start to finish, their arms were good. And we punched out at a clip that's not going to allow you to force them into a lot of mistakes."

FSU played essentially the entire game from behind Tuesday night. The Gators took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on an RBI groundout. After FSU tied it on a sacrifice fly by Max Williams in the third, UF took the lead right back on a pair of back-to-back, two-out doubles.

When FSU tied the game back up at 2-2 in the fifth on a leadoff homer from Brody DeLamielleure, the Gators responded with a three-run homer from freshman Brendan Lawson.

FSU got two runs back in the seventh after putting two on base with no outs on an RBI single from Myles Bailey -- which snapped a streak of 0 for 8 with runners on base in the game -- and a passed ball which plated Gage Harrelson. But FSU stranded the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, leaving the bases loaded with a flyout to right.

The FSU pitching staff settled in pretty well over the final few innings. However, control issues and struggles getting the final out of innings again loomed large.

Six FSU pitchers combined to walk seven batters and four of UF's five runs came with two outs. That included the game-winning home run from Lawson, which came on a 0-2 pitch that Maison Martinez was punished for after hanging it in the middle of the zone.

That came just a half-inning after FSU put two on with no outs in the top of the fifth but failed to add another run that would have given the Seminoles the lead.

"That fifth inning proved to be the turning point," Jarrett said.

The bright spot for the pitching staff was the three scoreless innings that Payton Manca and Chris Knier gave the Seminoles in the sixth through eighth.

However, that proved futile as FSU was set down in order over each of the final two innings, striking out four times and never again bringing the go-ahead run to the plate after leaving the bases loaded in the seventh.

FSU carries its three-game losing streak into a road weekend series which begins Friday at 6 p.m.

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