Video: Martin post-game Q&A following win over CSU
Some things are bigger than wins and losses
It was an emotional night at Dick Howser
stadium as No. 10 Florida State (29-9) defeated Charleston Southern
(16-24) 12-4.
It was ALS awareness night at the park, and Jimmy Everett, (former FSU
receiver and father of pitcher Tyler Everett), who is battling ALS
himself threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Tyler. After throwing
the pitch to his son, Jimmy was embraced by the entire Florida State
team in front of the dugout.
Not only did Everett catch the first pitch from his dad, but he was also
on the mound as the Seminoles starter in the first inning as a special
tribute to his dad who the main reason behind the ASL awareness night at
the stadium. Everett pitched a perfect inning, and struck out one in his
lone inning of work.
“It was a very special, special night,” Head coach Mike Martin said. “It
was one that was emotional. It was an evening that I thought back to
1972 when Jimmy Everett played on my basketball team at Godby, and then
I looked over and there’s his son pitching. It was good outing by Tyler
by the way, and well-played baseball game by us. Very pleased with the
way we approached it, and I thought we had some quality at-bats and big
hits.”
The Seminoles scored 12 runs on 14 hits, and scored two runs in six
different innings. Staurt Tapley started things off in the first inning
with a two-out, two-run homer to give FSU a lead it would never
relinquish.
“Tapley’s homerun certainly was big,” Martin said. “Kind of like getting
that first olive out the jar. The others were not easy by any means, but
it certainly was nice to have Tapley start us out that way.”
Tapley finished the game 3-for-5 with a homerun and three RBIs. James
Ramsey also had a big day at the plate, driving in three runs of his
own, going 3-for-4 with a double and scoring twice. Tyler Holt, Mike
McGee, Sherman Johnson, Devon Travis, and Rafael Lopez each drove in one
run.
After Everett’s emotional inning, Hunter Scantling turned in a career
performance on the mound. The sophomore recorded a career-high seven
strikeouts, gave up just two runs, and walked two in his five innings of
work to improve to 2-2 on the year.
“Hunter Scantling had a good outing,” Martin said. “One of the longest
outings for him this year, it was big lift for us.”
Scantling said after watching Everett in the first inning he just wanted
to keep the momentum going.
“After that I knew I had to follow up and keep everybody calm and just
go out there and keep focus,” Scantling said. “I felt like I did a good
job locating my fastball and keeping my curveball down.”
While it was emotional for Scantling to pitch after watching Everett,
you can only imagine what was running through Everett’s head after
catching the ceremonial pitch from his ailing father.
“I don’t know I was still a little scatter brained after it,” Everett
said. “It was tough, but I had to just put it to the side and get out of
the inning.”
Martin said he was impressed with how Everett handled himself throughout
the evening, and that his first inning inspired his team the rest of the
game.
“I thought about that, about how he would respond, but he went out there
and pitched like Tyler Everett,” Martin said. “Like his daddy, being the
outstanding coach that he is, expected him to do, and he went out there
and pitched extremely well and got us in the dugout. Kind of set the
tone.”
Tye Buckley gave up two earned runs in the seventh inning, and Geoff
Parker and Daniel Bennett gave up none on the final two innings of work,
combining to strike out three batter.
The Seminoles are hopping that the momentum and enthusiasm garnered by
Wednesday night will carry over to this weekend as they host the 13th
ranked Miami Hurricanes.
“There’s no doubt, this is the biggest weekend of the regular season,”
Martin said. “There’ll be a lot of excitement and it will be interesting
to see how we play.”
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