Bryson Moore entered Saturday’s Florida State Rubber Game in Virginia with a ton of pressure on his shoulders.
Top 10 series. FSU’s ACC series win begins conference play.
Oh, and he’s facing his old team.
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Not only did he do that, but he got off to the best start of his young FSU career, pitching seven scoreless innings for the No. 10 Cavaliers (24-9, 8-7 ACC), a team he played for in his first two seasons in college, to lead No. 7 FSU (24-7, 9-3) to a 9-3 series victory in Charlottesville, Virginia.
With the win, the Seminoles won their first four ACC series titles and remain atop the league standings. To do so, they defeated a Virginia team that had lost just twice in its first 17 home games in consecutive days after losing Thursday’s series opener.
Moore (5-1) worked around a leadoff walk in the first and then allowed back-to-back singles to start the second before really buckling down. Moore got out of the jam, starting with a double and a grounder, then retired the 13 batters he faced, seven of whom struck out.
If not for an error by center fielder Brayden Dowd with two outs in the sixth inning, he likely would have ended his game with a 17-game shutout.
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All told, Moore pitched a career-high seven innings, allowing just two hits, walking one and tying a career-high with seven strikeouts. He commands his entire pitch mix, pounding the strike zone and constantly drawing attention with his off-speed pitches.
Moore’s performance has proven to be enough to serve as an offensive balance for FSU’s lineup. Eight of nine batters had at least one hit and all nine reached base. In particular, Cal Fisher, John Stuetzer and Carter McCulley at the bottom of the order were very effective. They each had two hits, with Fisher and McCully each driving in two runs.
Fisher opened the scoring in the second inning with his first two-run home run of the season.
Hunter Carns (who also had two hits) and Eli Putnam had RBI hits in the fourth to extend the advantage to 4-0.
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McCully and Chase Williams (leading off) had two RBI hits in a row to push the score to 6-0 in the fifth inning.
After three two-run innings, FSU finally broke through with three runs in the seventh inning. McCully opened the scoring with an RBI double under the third baseman’s glove, and Williams (RBI grounder) and Noah Sheffield (sacrifice fly) followed with productive outs to extend the advantage to 9-0.
It was an efficient day for the Noles, who got the leadoff batter on base five times and went 8-for-22 (.364) with runners on base and 5-for-16 (.313) with runners on base. FSU was knocked down only once in the ninth inning, when the outcome of the game was already in its hands.
Brody Purcell replaced Moore on the mound in the eighth inning. He allowed homers to Kyle Johnson and Antonio Perrotta on the first pitch to end the combined shutout, and gave Joe Tiroli another leadoff homer in the ninth.
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Gabe Nalder came out of the bullpen and got the final three outs to preserve the win and the series.
Next
With another ACC series underway, the Seminoles return home with a chance to salvage a game in their midweek series against No. 21 Florida. The series concludes Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Dick Hauser Stadium and will be broadcast on ESPN2.
