Loss of star first baseman Myles Bailey leaves Florida State reeling. Duke capitalized on the void, taking Game 3 with a decisive offensive performance.
Florida State entered Game 3 of its ACC series against the Duke in a state of shock. On Saturday, they lost star first baseman Myles Bailey to a season-ending ankle injury.
The shock had not worn off as Florida State (21-6, 7-2 ACC) took the field on Sunday, and it showed in the Seminoles performance. Florida State managed just four runs and left nine base runners stranded in an 11-4 loss to the Blue Devils (18-12, 5-7).
Seminoles coach Link Jarrett and pitching coach Micah Posey used up half of their rotation to try and stop Duke's onslaught, but to no avail. Florida State starting pitcher Bryson Moore (4-1) took the loss.
In the top of the fourth inning, with Duke sporting a 2-0 lead, catcher Matthew Strand blasted a grand slam over the left field wall, breaking the game open for the Blue Devils, and the Seminoles could not recover.
The Seminoles batted an abysmal 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. With Bailey out of the lineup, there was an obvious void in power hitting that was not replaced on Sunday. So, the Seminoles played small ball to scrounge up the only runs they could muster.
Eli Putnam, who took over for Bailey at first base, went 2-for-4 on the day. Hunter Carns logged an RBI double and Kelvyn Paulino added a triple.
At his postgame press conference, Jarrett spoke about the impact of Bailey’s injury on the overall performance of his team.
"I know that our guys were hurting for him (Bailey) and feeling for him," Jarrett said. "It's one of the challenges of the sport, and the mindset that you bring to the park impacts the game, and we tried to get ourselves ready to go and prepare and do the things and adjust how we needed to adjust to play."
On Duke’s pitching, Jarret acknowledged the Blue Devils' starting pitcher, Andy Leon, was tough. The right-hander, a grad student who transferred in after graduating from Columbia University, struck out nine Seminoles over 5.1 innings.
"I can't explain some of the strikeouts ... the two fast balls, two breaking balls in the change. He mixed. He didn't double up," Jarrett said. "They did they did a nice job moving it around. I think he was coming off of some sort of rehab, but he pitched great and their guys were on it."
Jarrett said of his team’s own pitching and hitting, "I don't think we had back-to-back really good at-bats until (Brayden) Dowd and JS (John Stuetzer) in the sixth inning. And that's not going to take you far enough in a game, attempting to win it, if it takes that long to have two really good at-bats in a row."
"To get that far into the game and find yourself down," he said, "clearly that was a hole we couldn't dig our way out of."
Duke pitching rang up 17 strikeouts, including nine by Leon (2-1) and seven by reliever Ben Dean.
Florida State suffered only its second loss at home, and is now 16-2 at Dick Howser Stadium.
On Tuesday, the Seminoles will travel to Deland, Florida, to take on Stetson.
The first pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPN+ and broadcast via radio on 100.7 FM WFLA.
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