The SWAC East-leading Bethune-Cookman Wildcats played the No.13 Florida State Seminoles tough in Tallahassee (FL) at Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium. The Wildcats would score the first two runs of the game before being slugged to a 5-2 defeat.
Franki Febles doubled to start the second inning. With an errant throw, Michael Rodriguez would score. Febles would advance to third base on an errant throw. Jack Sidcumb would bring Febles in for the second score of the game.
B-CU maintained the lead until the bottom of the third when Florida State would put together its to rotate the bases. In the bottom of the fifth, FSU would put the game away with two home runs.
Head coach Johnny Hernandez was pleased with how the Wildcats fought in the turnaround game.
“I’m just really proud of the effort of our guys. Especially after a big loss last night against Central Florida at home, coming over here and traveling to Tallahassee playing a Top 25 team in FSU I’m just very proud of the effort that our guys had and we went pretty much blow for blow with Florida State,” Hernandez said.
The Wildcats are 15-12 overall and 7-1 in the SWAC. They will next host the Tigers of Jackson State University in Daytona Beach at Jackie Robinson Park for a SWAC Eastern division showdown this weekend. Hernandez and his team are excited to get back to conference play.
“We’re not in it for moral victories, but you can’t ignore the fact that we played very well on the road against the top 25 team tonight,” Hernandez concluded. “For people that don’t know, the SWAC east is grueling. You can’t take any weekend off. I think this year, however, it pans out, it doesn’t matter whether we stay at the top or we drop down to the four seed. Anybody in the SWAC East including the four seed is very capable of winning a SWAC championship and that’s no disrespect and take nothing away from the SWAC West,” he said.
