TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida State (3-0) finished a three-game sweep of Xavier (0-3) Sunday afternoon, beating the Musketeers 5-1 on Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium. The Seminoles got 6.0 innings from starting pitcher Drew Parrish while Cal Raleigh’s two-run double in the first inning provided the winning runs.
“Our guys got after it,” head coach Mike Martin said. “They were not satisfied (with just two wins). We pitched and played good defense. We had some timely hits. It was a very good weekend of baseball for us. No doubt it was all about our pitching.”
Parrish, a sophomore from Rockledge, donned the Sunday gold uniforms and allowed just three hits, a walk and a home run in six innings. He struck out nine hitters on the afternoon.
“I was throwing my changeup for strikes,” Parrish said about what worked Sunday afternoon. “They are good fastball hitters so having that third pitch in there to keep them off-balance was the key today.”
Raleigh got the scoring started in the first with a two-out, two-run double that plated Jackson Lueck and Drew Mendoza for a 2-0 FSU lead. Raleigh’s four RBI lead FSU after the opening weekend.
“Very important (start),” Raleigh said. “Last year didn’t live up to my individual expectations but I want to come out and prove to everybody that I can help the team win whatever it takes.”
After perfect second and third innings from Parrish, FSU used four walks, a wild pitch and error and J.C. Flowers’ single to extend the lead to 5-0 through three innings.
With two outs, Rhett Aplin, Raleigh, and Rafael Bournigal walked against Xavier starter Damien Richard (0-1). With the bases loaded, Richard threw a wild pitch that scored Aplin and a subsequent error on Musketeer catcher Nate Soria allowed Raleigh to score as well. With two strikes, Flowers notched his fifth hit of the season, an RBI single to plate Bournigal.
Xavier got one run back in the top of the fourth on Conor Grammes’ first home run of the season, ending a stretch of nine straight hitters retired by Parrish. After a walk, Parrish responded with another seven consecutive hitters retired.
True freshman Conor Grady made his first appearance as a Seminole in the seventh inning to relieve Parrish and pitched a perfect seventh and eighth innings, striking out five of six hitters.
Freshman Jonah Scolaro allowed a hit and struck out one hitter to close the game out in the ninth inning. Grammes had three of Xavier’s four hits in the game.
“Pitching was outstanding all weekend,” Martin said. “The last two were freshmen. Threw a freshman last night (Austin Pollock). Very poised, very proud of them.”
Cal Raleigh’s two-out, two-run single in the first inning scored Jackson Lueck and Drew Mendoza and gave FSU a 2-0 lead.
– FSU pitching has recorded at least one strikeout in 26 of 27 innings this season, including all nine Sunday.
– Parrish’s nine strikeouts are his most in a regular season game. Parrish had 12 in the 2017 NCAA regional opener against Tennessee Tech and also nine in the super regional against Sam Houston State.
– FSU pitching struck out 15 hitters today and 43 over the three-game series. It was the first time since the Villanova series in 2013 that FSU struck out at least 14 hitters in three straight games.
– FSU drew eight walks Sunday and struck out just four times. On the weekend, Seminole hitters had a 26-to-14 walk-to-strikeout ratio.
FSU’s win was head coach Mike Martin’s 1,947th of his career. He needs just 29 more to become the winningest coach in college baseball history. He currently trails only Augie Garrido (1,975 wins).
Florida State will host USF Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. at Dick Howser Stadium. The Bulls are coming off a 1-2 weekend against No. 7 North Carolina. The Seminoles will throw redshirt junior righthander Andrew Karp.
