TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (seminoles.com) — Sophomore Elijah Cabell extended his hitting streak to 10 games in dramatic fashion Wednesday, hitting a walk-off home run to lift Florida State (26-18) past Florida Gulf Coast (27-18) 2-1 at Dick Howser Stadium. Cabell’s 13th home run of the season was his first career walk-off hit.
Florida Gulf Coast won the first game of the day, 8-7, on a ninth-inning home run of their own.
FSU 2, FGCU 1
Florida State got outstanding pitching from Ross Dunn, Chase Haney and Wyatt Crowell (1-1) in the second game Wednesday. Elijah Cabell’s walk-off home run in the ninth inning was the first of his career and his 13th home run of the season.
The Seminoles got on the board first against Tyler Tipton when Jackson Greene led off the third inning with his second double of the series. Colton Vincent’s sacrifice fly moved him to third base and he scored on Tyler Martin’s RBI single to center field.
Greene’s two doubles against the Eagles were his first of the season.
Dunn made his first start of his career, working around four hits and a walk to not allow a run in 3.1 innings. The freshman from Salt Lake City struck out a career high four batters.
Haney relieved Dunn and pitched 3.1 innings, allowing a solo home run that tied the game with three strikeouts. The senior tied the FSU record with his 136th pitching appearance and was one out shy of his career-high innings pitched.
Crowell moved from center field to the pitcher’s mound in the seventh inning, forcing a ground ball to Greene at second base to end the inning and maintain the 1-1 score. He pitched a perfect eighth inning and worked around a leadoff single in the ninth inning to keep the score tied.
Cabell took the fourth pitch of the ninth from Joey Mugavero (4-2) 376 feet opposite field for the walk-off home run. The hit extended Cabell’s hitting streak to 10 games and the sophomore is now hitting .291 on the season.
Martin and Greene each had two hits for the Seminoles in game two. Eagles leadoff hitter Brian Ellis had three of FGCU’s seven hits in the game.
OF NOTE:
Freshman Ross Dunn made his first career start. He threw 3.1 innings, allowed four hits and a walk and struck out four. His season ERA fell to 1.59.
Chase Haney tied the FSU record with his 136th career pitching appearance. He is tied with Kevin Lynch (2002-05) for the school record and his 29 appearances this year are the most in the country. He threw 3.1 innings Wednesday, one out shy of his career high and just the fourth time he has thrown 3+ innings.
Jackson Greene doubled in both games against Florida Gulf Coast. They were his first two doubles of the season.
Elijah Cabell extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a walk-off home run. It was Cabell’s 13th home run of the season and his first career walk-off. The Seminoles have two walk-off HR this year (Nander De Sedas vs. North Carolina). He has safely reached base in 31 of his past 32 games.
Tyler Martin had a hit in both games Wednesday and has reached base in 54 of his 58 career starts.
Mat Nelson walked in his final plate appearance and has reached base safely in 15 straight games.
FGCU 8, FSU 7
Jacob Lojewski’s solo home run in the ninth inning gave visiting FGCU an 8-7 victory Wednesday. The team’s played four innings Tuesday before a weather delay pushed the resumption to Wednesday.
Logan Lacey had three hits and three RBI for the Seminoles, who rallied from a 7-3 deficit to tie the game in the seventh inning. Hunter Perdue (1-1) suffered his first loss at Florida State.
FSU led, 2-1, when the game was suspended Tuesday evening. Lacey hit his fourth home run of the season to give the Seminoles the lead.
FGCU scored six runs on six hits, all with two outs in the sixth inning to take the 7-3 lead. Lacey hit a two-run single and Robby Martin had his second RBI of the day to tie the score against Jason Woodward (3-2). Starting with Martin’s groundout, Woodward retired the final eight batters of the game, which included perfect eighth and ninth innings.
The Seminoles used seven pitchers. Tyler Ahearn threw a season-high 3.1 innings in early relief of Carson Montgomery.
