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Florida State

Rainfall, Clemson rally dampen night for FSU Baseball; game will conclude on Sunday

On3 imageby: Corey Clark05/04/25Corey_Clark
On3 image
FSU pitcher Joey Volini delivers Saturday night against Clemson. (Courtesy of Florida State Sports Information)

FSU pitcher Joey Volini was rolling on Saturday night against the visiting Clemson Tigers. He had allowed one run, two hits and just four total baserunners heading into the eighth inning at Dick Howser Stadium.

Then the rains came.

Not hard enough to stop the action, but hard enough for a sold-out crowd to go scurrying for cover, drain the energy out of the building and seemingly spark a Clemson rally. The Tigers scored three runs in the frame to take a 4-3 lead and then, after an actual weather delay in the bottom of the inning, the game was suspended for the night.

It will resume at 1 p.m. on Sunday with one out in the bottom of the eighth and a runner on first.

The biggest hit of the night came in the top of the eighth from Clemson leadoff hitter Cam Cannarella, who also robbed FSU’s Alex Lodise of a potential home run in the bottom of the seventh. With runners on second and third and two outs, Cannarella ripped a Volini pitch to the deepest part of the park, over Max Williams’ head and off the wall to score both runners.

On the relay throw to third, the ball got away from FSU third baseman Cal Fisher, Cannarrella popped up and scampered toward home. The ensuing throw from Volini was his wildest of the night — it was high and wide — and by the time catcher Nathan Cmeyla could snag the ball and dive back toward home, Cannarella was sliding in for the go-ahead run.

There’s no way to know if the wet ball affected the throws to third and home, but it certainly didn’t help. Just like there’s no way to know if the rain that sent the crowd rushing out of the bleachers and grandstands had a tangible impact on the game; it likely didn’t help either.

And Clemson took advantage, collecting more hits in that inning (three) than it had the previous seven innings combined (two).

Meanwhile, FSU couldn’t really come through with a big hit for much of the night despite having multiple baserunners in multiple innings.

Florida State was just 1-of-8 with runners in scoring position on Saturday night before the game was delayed.

The Seminoles’ three runs came on a 422-foot solo homer from Cymela, his first of the season, an RBI-double by Myles Bailey and then a solo homer from Gage Harrelson in the bottom of the seventh. Lodise almost made it back-to-back homers, but his drive to deep center was snared by a leaping Cannarella at the wall.

Lodise, who is a National Player of the Year candidate, is hitless so far in the series. But he is guaranteed of getting at least one more at-bat in this game on Sunday.

Game 3 of the series will follow afterward.

*Talk about this story with other die-hard Florida State baseball fans in the FSU Baseball Forum*

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