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Just a night after knocking off arch-rival Florida in an emotional and dramatic contest, the Seminoles stubbed their toe on Wednesday night.

The Seminoles fell to 26-8 on the season after suffering a 10-8 loss at home to Jacksonville University.

Florida State’s lineup sputtered only registering two hits through seven innings of play. Starting pitcher Hunter Scantling helped keep the ‘Noles in striking distance throwing seven innings of two run baseball allowing four hits, one walk, and struck out six.

Scantling’s seven innings pitched and six strikeouts became new career-highs for the Jacksonville product.

“Hunter pitched very well,” Martin said of his starter. “He sat for a long time so we decided to go get him. With a two run lead and six outs to get, you feel pretty good.”

The Seminoles offense put together a late rally in hopes of pulling off an improbable upset, but came up just short.

Florida State notched four runs on five hits from the eighth inning on, but were one base hit away from tying the game up in the bottom of the ninth with two runners in scoring position and one out to work with.

Freshman pinch hitter Justin Gonzalez battled fouling off several tough pitches before finally succumbing to Matt Loosen going down on strikes to end the ball game.

“There is no such thing as excuses with Florida State baseball,” said head coach Mike Martin. “There never will be as long as we are here. We didn’t usually do things that we usually do.”

Coach Martin’s bullpen, which has been a strength of the team of late, uncharacteristically surrendered the lead after Scantling’s departure.

Robert Benincasa was the first pitcher to enter out of the bullpen but failed to record an out. Daniel Bennett followed suit only to record a single out as the pair surrendered a combined five earned runs on five hits.

Robby Scott and Andrew Durden finished the game off pitching the final one and two-thirds innings.

“We didn’t have Everett, Busch, or McGee available,” Martin explained. “They were all being preserved. Parker could have gone an inning, but I didn’t want to use him. I wanted to have everybody ready for this weekend.”

With the loss over and done with, Florida State’s attention now turns to Duke and a three game road trip to Durham, North Carolina.

“We know where our focus needs to be and that is on the weekend,” Martin said.

The Seminoles will make a change to their weekend rotation as southpaw Brian Busch will enter the Saturday spot and John Gast will start on Sunday.

Game times for this weekend are scheduled for 6:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m., and 1:00 p.m., respectively.
 

Click here for a complete boxscore

Section B Online Player of the Game:

Hunter Scantling
7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6K