Myles Bailey homers twice to spark FSU baseball’s sloppy win over UNF
Despite a meager finish over the weekend in Arlington, Texas, Florida State baseball’s offensive slump didn’t carry into Wednesday’s midweek matchup vs. North Florida.
Myles Bailey made sure of that.
The sophomore slugger homered twice, had three hits and four RBIs to spark the Seminoles’ 14-9 win over the Ospreys at Dick Howser Stadium to snap a two-game losing streak, overcoming a largely sloppy performance on the mound.
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After providing an RBI single in FSU’s six-run second inning to jump ahead 6-1, Bailey hit a two-run wall-scraping homer to left to extend the lead to 8-2 in the fourth. He then hit a no-doubt opposite-field shot to left which cleared the scoreboard (428 feet) for his fourth homer of the season, three of which have come in the last two games.
Kelvyn Paulino Jr. added two hits and three RBIs in his first career start, and Noah Sheffield added two hits and four RBIs to bring his season tally to a team-leading 10.
With Trey Beard still limited last weekend and Payton Manca forced to start Sunday’s Texas finale vs. Nebraska. That forced the Seminoles (5-2) into a bullpen game vs. UNF, putting redshirt freshman Rhett Vaughn on the mound for his first start.
It began inauspiciously when he allowed a leadoff homer to Matthew Varner to begin the game, but Vaughn settled down from there, striking out the next three batters and finishing with two runs on three hits over 2 1/3 innings along with four Ks.
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The bullpen again struggled some with control in relief of Vaughn. The next five relievers combined for six walks in 3 1/3 innings, including three from Cade O’Leary in 2/3 of an inning and two from Ben Barrett without recording a walk.
Thankfully for the Seminoles, Manca gave them stability out of the bullpen immediately after the Ospreys cut the FSU lead to 8-6 with a three-run double from Jackson Toberman.
Immediately after that hit, Manca was brought in and struck out the first five batters he faced. He struck out six over 2 1/3 no-hit innings.
Cole Stokes was brought on to start the ninth but instead walked two batters, hit another and had three wild pitches while recording just one out.
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Chris Knier came out of the pen and finally slammed the door with a strikeout and a groundout but that did little to remove the stink of an underwhelming bullpen game.
Overall, nine FSU pitchers combined to allow nine earned runs on nine hits with 18 strikeouts, nine walks, two hit batters and three wild pitches. Of those nine pitchers, four of them recorded an out or less and six recorded less than an inning.
The Seminoles are back in action this weekend with a three-game series against The Citadel. It starts Friday at noon due to the Savannah Bananas here in town this weekend for three games.