Section B Online

Monday March 08, 2010

	AT BAT				BALL					STRIKE					OUT						H/E
		2	5			3					2					2					H
				1	2	3	4	5	6		7	8	9	10			RUNS		HITS			E
FSU				0	0	0	0	1	0		0	0	1					2		6		1
JU				0	0	0	0	0	0		0	0	0					0		1		0

Seminoles survive pitching duel

by Corey Dowlar, Warchant.com

In a battle of two old western gunfighters, it was the Seminoles staff that survived the pitching duel in Jacksonville on Monday night.

Florida State emerged victorious edging out the Dolphins of Jacksonville University 2-0 in a game where Seminoles pitchers allowed only one hit and notched their second shutout of the 2010 season. It was the first one-hit performance by Seminoles pitchers since 2005 against Charleston Southern.

Junior pitcher Mike McGee was sensational in his first outing of the season throwing six complete innings without allowing a hit. The All-American did however, walk eight batters but fanned eight over his 99 pitches.

As the game wore on with a zero in the hit column, McGee and his teammates knew better than to talk about what was potentially on the horizon.

“It was pretty quiet,” McGee said. “People were like good job or whatever every time I came in, but you know baseball, nobody talks about stuff like that. Our dugout was pretty quiet. I sat alone on the bench since the third inning.”

Eventually, that hit would come in the bottom of the ninth inning off of Tyler Everett ending Florida State’s no hitter bid that would have been the first since February 18th, 1998 against Charleston Southern.

Most importantly, however, was the quality of McGee’s start. While he did throw only a handful of pitches against the Phillies in an exhibition game, this was the Port St. Lucie native’s first shot on the mound since 2009.

“I felt good,” McGee said. “My arm felt real good. I haven’t thrown in forever, so I was pretty rested. It felt nice. Once I got used to the mound out there, I settled in and felt really good.

“I was definitely pleased with Mike McGee,” added pitching coach Jamie Shouppe. “He hadn’t thrown in a while and it seemed like everything was working against him to get his innings. He would get a little knick or something bothering him here and there and we had to shut him down in the preseason a little bit. But we saw the Mike McGee that we saw last year – even a better Mike McGee because he added a changeup. That has allowed him to be a three pitch guy rather than a two pitch guy.”

After throwing 99 pitches threw six innings, McGee tried his hardest to convince the coaches to give him another go. But it just wasn’t to be.

With it being his first start in a long time, the coaches had no choice but to avoid the risk.

“There was just no way we could have let him,” said Shouppe. “Once he got up around 90 pitches, there was no way we were going to let him go back out there. We were actually going to pull him in the sixth, and he kind of talked his way into one more inning. He was at about 74 or 75 pitches, which was where we wanted to hold him to this time, but he talked himself into one more inning. He wasn’t going to finish the game. There was no way he was going to throw three more innings to get the complete game.”

Florida State’s high powered offense that had only been held under double digit runs once the season coming in, was handcuffed by Jacksonville starter Matt Loosen. Loosen kept Seminoles hitters off balance all night throwing seven complete innings allowing four hits and one run while striking out 11.

Loosen was the tough luck loser dropping to 0-1 on the season.

The Seminoles finally found their breakthrough in the fifth from an unlikely source. After Sherman Johnson ended Loosen’s no-hitter bid and Justin Gonzalez was hit by a pitch, first baseman Sean Gilmartin came up with a clutch RBI single to right to give the Florida State the lead for good.

Gilmartin, the usual Friday night starter and ace of the staff, rewarded head coach Mike Martin for putting him in the lineup as he was the only Seminoles player to register more than one hit going 2-for-4.

Monday’s type of win might be exactly what Florida State will have to do when they travel away from Dick Howser Stadium this season.

“I think it is what you have to expect to do on the road and what you have to do on the road to be successful,” Shouppe explained. “It’s not like at home when you have that last at bat in your back pocket. You don’t have the fan support, even though we actually did tonight, it’s just what you have to do to win on the road.

“We know Jacksonville has a great ball club. They do a great job with their pitching and they always have. They have been successful the last two years. That’s a good win for our baseball team.”

The Florida State Seminoles will return home to play the University of North Florida Ospreys on Wednesday in a make-up game that was postponed due to weather. Freshman Robert Benincasa is scheduled to throw the first pitch at 4:00 p.m.

Click here for a complete boxscore

Section B Online Player of the Game:

Mike McGee
6.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 8 K