Skip to main content
Florida State
Join Now

No. 14 Seminoles hang on for 6-3 win to secure series victory over Clemson

On3 imageby: Corey Clark05/10/26Corey_Clark

Nothing about Sunday was easy.

Nothing about the entire weekend was easy. But in the end, the No. 14 Florida State baseball team held on for a 6-3 win over Clemson on Sunday to take the weekend series over the struggling Tigers.

The Seminoles are now 36-15 overall and 17-10 in the ACC. Clemson drops to 30-22 overall and 9-18 in the conference.

Florida State is currently tied in third place in the conference standings with Boston College. The top four seeds earn double byes in the ACC Tournament later this month.

That’s not as important for the Seminoles as trying to get a Top 8 national seed in the NCAA Tournament. While that’s definitely not a certainty at this stage of the season, winning two out of three on the road this weekend kept FSU in the conversation heading into the final series of the year against Miami at Dick Howser Stadium.

Just like the previous two games against Clemson, Florida State once again jumped out to an early lead on Sunday.

Nathan Cmeyla led off the second with a solo homer off the foul pole in right field. Carter McCulley drove in a run with an RBI single and freshman John Stuetzer hit a sacrifice fly to right field to drive in another and give FSU a 3-0 lead.

McCulley then launched a solo home run to left field in the fourth inning to give the Seminoles a 4-0 lead.

Clemson was able to get one back off FSU starter Bryson Moore when Jarren Purify led off the bottom of the fifth with a triple to center — a ball that would have likely been caught by Brayden Dowd, but he stumbled running up the warning hill at Doug Kingsmore Stadium — and then scored when Moore failed to field a one-out squeeze bunt.

Other than that, Moore was sensational for the Seminoles on Sunday.

The right-hander pitched six innings and allowed just five hits and one walk while striking out four on 75 pitches.

Meanwhile, Florida State’s offense was able to tack on a run in the sixth on a Stuetzer RBI single and another in the eighth on a Brody DeLamielleure RBI single. But despite multiple chances, Florida State could never put the game out of reach because it just couldn’t come through with another big inning.

The Seminoles slashed 15 hits and worked six walks in the game. But they left a whopping 15 runners on base, including 10 over the last four innings.

So, Clemson was still very much in the game. And the Tigers were able to score an unearned run in the seventh off reliever Cooper Whited as first baseman Ben Barrett couldn’t field a two-out pop up and then threw wildly to second base to allow a Clemson baserunner to score.

Then, in the eighth, after getting the first two outs quickly, Whited walked the next hitter on a 3-2 pitch, and then hit the next batter on a 1-2 pitch. He then got ahead of Purify 0-2, but couldn’t put him away and Whited wound up surrendering an RBI single to center to make the score 6-3.

Brodie Purcell came on with the tying run in the batter’s box and ended the threat with a three-pitch strikeout.

The USC transfer then struck out two more in the ninth to secure the save and give the Seminoles their seventh ACC series win of the season.

Dowd was the only starter to not get at least one hit, but he did reach base twice on a walk and a hit-by-pitch. Stuetzer, DeLamielleure and Cmeyla each had three hits for FSU and Barrett and McCulley had two.

Florida State returns to action on Thursday night to close out the regular season with a three-game series against the rival Hurricanes.

*Talk about this story with other die-hard Florida State baseball fans in the FSU Baseball Forum*

You may also like