The Citadel baseball team fell to No. 21 Florida State with a 2-0 loss at Dick Howser Stadium on Sunday afternoon. The defeat brings The Citadel’s record to 4-5, while Florida State improves to 8-2.
Florida State scored first in the second inning when John Stuetzer hit an RBI double, bringing Eli Putnam home from first base. The Seminoles extended their lead in the fifth inning after Hunter Carns delivered a sacrifice fly RBI that allowed Chase Williams to score.
For The Citadel, Rhyder Poppell and Garrett Fulmer each recorded a hit, and Phillips Daniels drew two walks. On the pitching side, Andrew Bowers started and threw four innings, allowing six hits and two earned runs along with two walks and two strikeouts. Zane Davis pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit. Riley Ballard added another 1.2 innings without allowing any runs.
Florida State’s Bryson Moore secured the win by pitching six innings of one-hit ball with five strikeouts and only one walk. Chris Knier earned the save by throwing three scoreless innings and striking out four batters.
Head coach Russell Triplett commented on his team’s performance: “I’m proud of how we competed on the mound all weekend. Our defense put us into many self-inflicted jams, but we made key pitches and crucial plays on defense after the mistakes. We struggled all weekend on offense and never really got to play our game,” he said. “This game is about adjusting, and we didn’t handle that well in the box. We played 28 innings, and nearly every pitch mattered. We can learn a lot from this trip. There were plenty of positives and negatives. This weekend will help us improve in the future.”
The Bulldogs are scheduled to host Georgia Southern next Wednesday at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park with first pitch set for 6 p.m.
