After getting off to a hot start rattling off six consecutive victories, the Florida State Baseball team has fallen into a bit of a slump. Wednesday night, that slump continued in the form of a 5-4 home loss against the University of North Florida.

Florida State has now lost three consecutive non-conference games for the first time since 2005 when facing Hawaii.

“That was not the kind of game you would expect,” head coach Mike Martin said. “You really have to tip your hat to them. They did a great job. They deserved to win.”

The Seminoles were plagued with the error bug, committing a season high four errors, something they will have to improve on this weekend when ACC foe Boston College comes to town.

“We didn’t play solid defense tonight,” Martin said. “Reaching for a ball thrown in from the outfield and deflecting it off the glove – it’s just very discouraging.”

Florida State appeared to have worked their way back into a favorable position when they tied the game at four via a Stuart Tapley RBI single to right field that brought Tyler Holt home.

However, the Florida State let an opportunity go to waste as they left the bases loaded in the same inning. In total, FSU stranded 11 runners on base.

“We were looking for that big hit,” Martin said. “We had a chance to do something there in the ninth, but were just not able to get it done.”

Seminole batters struck out 11 times on the night, six of which were looking, and made it hard on themselves to find the clutch hit that would have put them over the top.

“That is certainly a concern,” Martin said. “The guy worked us away, away, away. Usually we are very good at making adjustments, and we never made adjustments tonight.”

One of the bright spots for Florida State was freshman left hander Brian Busch. The southpaw threw five and two thirds innings, allowing only a single hit. Unfortunately, that hit came in the form of a solo home run over the left field fence that proved to be the winning run for the Ospreys of North Florida.

Coach Martin and company know that given the recent performances out on the diamond, the Seminoles will have some major work to do with ACC games coming up.

“We are not going to be very happy,” Martin revealed. “Hopefully we are able to throw these away. We can’t afford to carry over any of the way we played the last three games. We are going to have to shake these off and move to the next ball game.”

Florida State will look to end their losing streak on Friday when they play Boston College at Dick Howser Stadium with first pitch scheduled at 6:00 p.m.
 

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Section B Online Player of the Game:
Brian Busch
(5.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 5K)