Wyatt Crowell’s first start at Florida State will be one he won’t soon forget.
The junior left-hander pitched six shutout innings, had three hits and four walks and struck out a career-high 10 in the Seminoles’ 5-3 victory over Pittsburgh on Saturday. He threw 100 pitches, 59 for strikes.
Crowell (3-0) had long-relief outings in 2022 and the first few weeks of this season, but coach Link Jarrett opted to move his top left-handed reliever into the rotation for the opening weekend of ACC play . And Crowell turned in the best mound appearance of his impressive career, pitching 5.2-innings in a win against FGCU a few weeks back.
Crowell worked out of situations where he had runners on first, second, fifth and sixth base. In the fourth, Crowell loaded the bases with no outs, recording only a pair of strikeouts and getting a weak grounder on the mound, which he flipped to Colton Vincent for the third out.
He lowered his ERA to 0.87. He had 23 strikeouts and seven walks coming into Saturday.
FSU (11-3, 2-0 ACC) provided plenty of run support in the bottom of the first. Jaime Ferrer had an RBI single, Jordan Carrion had an RBI double and Cam Smith had a two-run single to give the Seminoles a 4–0 lead.
Pitt coach Mike Bell, formerly FSU’s pitching coach, was ejected in the first inning after Carrion’s throw—which was called on a throw home—was overturned on review. The call of catcher’s interference gave the Seminoles considerable cushion.
Smith took 2 for 3 while Carrion took 2 for 4.
FSU’s bullpen gave up a pair of runs in the seventh, both off Doug Kirkland. Jaime Arnold entered the game and pitched in the ninth and left the game with the bases loaded and two outs. Andrew Armstrong got the strikeout to end the game and get his second save.
Crowell pitched 5.1 shutout innings in a win over NC State last March, recording just four hits and five strikeouts. He pitched five shutout innings at Clemson last April, hitting two hits and striking out six.
FSU will go for the cleanup on Sunday at 1PM (live stream on ACC Network Xtra).
