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Florida State ran into a buzz saw named
Danny Hultzen on Friday night.
The Seminoles suffered defeat for the first time falling 5-0 to the
Cavaliers at Dick Howser Stadium. Florida State’s juggernaut of an
offense was subdued by the Virginia sophomore as the Tribe was shutout
for the first since 2008 when they lost to Bucknell in the opening game
of the Tallahassee Regional.
Hultzen threw six complete innings surrendering only two hits and struck
out six without walking a single batter over the course of his outing.
“All I have to say is (hats off) to that bunch,” said head coach Mike
Martin of the Cavaliers. “That was a beautiful game of baseball. You
can’t say enough about all three of Virginia’s pitchers. Danny pitched
beautifully.
“It was just a beautiful, well pitched game on their part, and they
deserve all the credit.”
Hultzen had a perfect game through four and two-thirds innings before
Sherman Johnson broke up the second no-hitter bid of the week with a
double. Against Jacksonville, Johnson’s hit also came in the fifth
inning.
Johnson, who was the only Seminole besides Rafael Lopez and Jayce Boyd
to collect a hit, provided some insight as to why Hultzen was nearly
untouchable on the mound.
“He threw well,” Johnson said. “He doesn’t get all those honors for
pitcher of the year in the ACC for no reason. He threw well, that’s the
first time I’ve ever seen him pitch myself.
“He’s a polished pitcher that hits his spots. He has three pitches that
all work. He throws a slider when he is down in the count and his
fastball is 90 to 92 miles per hour, so you won’t find that many guys
who are left handed that can do that day in and day out.”
Florida State’s starting pitcher Sean Gilmartin has surely had better
outings in his days in the Garnet and Gold. However, with normal
offensive production in his support, Gilmartin’s outing would have
probably resulted in a win.
Instead, the craft left hander was the unfortunate recipient of his
first loss of the season going six plus innings, allowing four runs on a
career-high 11 hits, walked three, and struck out six.
“As much as anything, it was the location of the fastball,” said Martin
of Gilmartin’s misfortune. “We went a little more sliders tonight and
the fastball was located quite as well as he normally locates it.”
But in the nature of the sport, Florida State won’t have much time to
dwell on Friday’s loss as it is right back out to the diamond in less
than 24 hours. Such was the message that coach Martin delivered to his
team at the conclusion of the contest.
“I congratulated them on playing very well for the first 13 games,” said
Martin of his post-game speech. “You just have to understand in this
game, you can’t get up, you can’t get down, you have to be ready to go
the next day. We are playing a very good Virginia team the next two
days, then we take a day off and play a very good Florida team. There’s
no rest here. We can’t get down. We have to be ready to go tomorrow.
“I could never be a football or a basketball coach and have to sit
around after a loss.”
Smiles and signs of happiness were few and far between in the first base
dugout after the loss – particularly among the veterans. Instead it was
frustration and disappointment.
As their head coach mentioned, the Seminoles realize that one game at
this stage of the season will not make or break their goals. With that
in mind, it is with a sense of anticipation and hunger that grips the
minds of the Florida State hitters.
“The mind set is to definitely get back and play our game,” said senior
All-American shortstop Stephen Cardullo. “We are a great offensive club,
but tonight we didn’t show it at all. Three hits, no runs. So hopefully,
we can get a great outing from John Gast. He’s going to come out and
pitch his heart out, and as an offense we have to do a lot better.
“Everyone is anxious to get back out there, especially after the
offensive performance that we displayed tonight. It was sickening what
we did offensively.”
With the loss, Florida State drops to 0-1 in ACC play for the first time
since 2002 when the Seminoles fell to Virginia in Charlottesville.
The two, top five ranked teams will play again tomorrow at 6:00 p.m.
with John Gast scheduled to go head-to-head with Cavalier right handed
pitcher Robert Morey.
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