After a three-game sweep of the Oakland Golden Grizzlies on opening weekend, No. 12 Florida State (3-0) makes the trek east on I-10 to face Jacksonville (1-2) on Wednesday, February 18 at 4 pm for the first of an early four-game road swing for the Seminoles.
The Seminoles outscored the Grizzlies 27-6 this past weekend as Florida State hit .323 as a team, while posting a team ERA of 1.00 allowing just three earned runs in 27.0 innings. DJ Stewart and Josh Delph paced the Florida State offense hitting .556 and .500, respectively. FSU’s starting pitchers allowed just two earned runs and struck out 21 over a combined 16.0 innings of work.
Wednesday’s meeting marks the first of two games between the Seminoles and Dolphins over a seven-day span. The two teams will complete the season series in Tallahassee on Tuesday, February 24.
The Seminoles enter the game winners of nine in a row over the Dolphins. FSU has won five straight inside John Sessions Stadium with JU’s last win on its home turf coming on March 3, 2009 (9-4). Over the nine-game win streak, FSU has outscored JU 79-41 while five of those contests have been decided by three runs or less.
Last year, Florida State doubled up the Dolphins in Jacksonville (12-6) before closing out the regular season series with a 6-1 victory in Tallahassee.
JU’s last win in the series came on April 14, 2010 as the Dolphins defeated the Seminoles 10-8. The series has been closely contested as of late with 13 of the last 22 games decided by three runs or less including eight of the last 12.
Wednesday’s game, which marks the 161st all-time meeting between these intra-state rivals, also marks the return of two area locals in DJ Stewart and Will Zirzow - both products of The Bolles School.
Jacksonville dropped two of three from Middle Tennessee State over the weekend to open the 2015 season. The Dolphins salvaged the series with an 11-2 victory on Sunday. Former Seminole JJ Gould started all three games for JU – two games at second base and one at shortstop. Gould finished the weekend series hitting .333 with four hits and an RBI.
LHP Bryant Holtmann (0-0, 0.00 ERA) will be on the hill for the Seminoles making his first career start against Jacksonville. The Dolphins will send out RHP Jeff Tanner (0-0, 3.86 ERA).