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FSU baseball sweeps weekend series against Miami, wraps up dominant rivalry week
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- FSU baseball sweeps weekend series against Miami, wraps up dominant rivalry week
Florida State baseball is standing on business in the state of Florida.
A 6-4 win over Miami on Saturday gave the Seminoles the series sweep for the first time since 2021 and is now 12-0 against in-state teams this season.
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Saturday's game was a second straight sellout as 6,601 fans watched the Seminoles take down Miami.
They can claim a "state championship" if it defeats North Florida on April 23 and Jacksonville on May 7 at home, and Stetson on May 14 in DeLand.
FSU has in-state wins this season over Miami (three), Florida (three), Jacksonville (two), South Florida, Florida Gulf Coast, Stetson and Bethune-Cookman.
The series victory comes off the heels of the Seminoles' Tuesday win over Florida, 19-4 , giving FSU its first season sweep of the Gators since 2000 . It's the first time FSU has swept Florida and Miami in the same season since 1960.
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"Today culminates what was a tough week," FSU head coach Link Jarrett said . "I rewind what it felt like last Sunday in Boston. You're trying to finish a series up there in tough conditions...You roll into this parking lot by at about 1:30, unload everything and I bet these guys didn't get to bed until 3:30 or 4 Monday morning."
"You have the Florida game Tuesday night and to respond on a Thursday series. This team has responded better than any time I've ever been with."
Rivalry heats up late
Cam Smith's ninth home run of the season in the third inning, a three-run shot and Marco Dinges's solo home run in the eighth inning, his ninth of the season highlighted the Seminoles' offensive effort.
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Smith was 2-for-4 on the day and Dinges was 1-for-3.
"The first hit I thought I got it but it wasn't high enough. That second one I had to sprit out of the box a little bit and once I saw the outfielder looking back, I let it eat," Smith said.
Dinges eighth inning bomb also set off some fireworks between the two teams.
While Dinges was running the bases Miami's Edgardo Villegas started shouting at Dinges, prompting Villegas to be ejected from the game.
When touching home plate, Dinges gleefully "threw the U down" and broke it over his knee.
"We had a lot of zeros after the third inning, it was a nailbiter the whole game, but once he [Dinges] got that home run we were sure that we were going to win that game," Smith said.
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After the game, Jarrett and Miami head coach JD Arteaga both agreed that the teams wouldn't shake hands to avoid any sort of conflict that could've arisen.
"Unfortunately there's a lot of stuff going on right now that's extracurricular within the game," Jarrett said. "I don't know exactly what happened, but there was something going on that I think was brewing all weekend. I'm not sure if I was even aware of it."
"I don't know what was said when he was rounding the bases...We came out on the good side of it, but I don't like how things escalated there."
Group effort by bullpen
FSU baseball defeated Miami, 6-4, on April 13, 2024 at Dick Howser Stadium.
Max Williams was 2-for-4 on the day, doubling in the third inning to score one. James Tibbs III was 2-for-4 and made an impressive grab in the second inning along the right field wall to prevent a Miami double.
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On the bump, FSU ran four arms with lefty Andrew Armstrong (5-0) picking up the win. He allowed one run on three hits and faced 16 batters over 4.1 innings.
"It felt good to go four innings today," Armstrong said. "We had some guys down and we had Ox [Brennen Oxford] step up big yesterday and I got some good innings in today. It was good to be able to do that for the guys."
Lefty Carson Dorsey started the game and threw for 3.2 innings before being relieved for righty John Abraham. Dorsey allowed three runs on six hits, two walking and striking out three of 20 batters faced.
Lefty Connor Hults earned the save, picking up the final out of the game.
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"Army [Armstrong] came in, was good and in control of the game, but it seemed like we needed to do something different at the very end," Jarrett said. "Hults bangs the breaking ball in and luckily [Alex] Lodise was right where he needed to be with that pitch and he made a nice play."
Making history one game at a time
Florida State baseball faced Miami in game 3 of its weekend series on April 13, 2024.
The Seminoles improve to 30-5 overall and 10-5 in ACC play. They surpass 30 wins for the first time since 2022. FSU hosts Mercer on Tuesday at 6 p.m. before traveling to No. 14 Wake Forest that weekend.
There is a lot of significance to Jarrett that this is the first time FSU has swept Miami and Florida in 64 years, but he remains focused on one game at a time.
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"We're playing good baseball and that says a lot about it," Jarrett said. "This is not an easy thing to do. This week is not easy. You can go back as far as you want. It's not easy to stack like this."
"When I say respond, you have to do it every single day. The response and the execution of the performance may lead you to that. I'm worried about pitch-by-pitch performance, execution and us doing the best job that we can to put them in position."
Jack Williams covers Florida State athletics for Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at jwilliams@tallahassee.com or on X @jackgwilliams.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU baseball wraps up dominant rivalry week with sweep of Miami
