DELAND, Fla. -- Sophomore Austin Amaral put his first opportunity to serve as a collegiate startling pitcher to good use Tuesday afternoon at Melching Field, throwing six shutout innings against visiting Florida State, leading the Hatters to a 6-0 victory over the 23rd-ranked Seminoles.
It was Stetson's second consecutive home shutout win over FSU, although it had been right at three years since the Seminoles last made the trek to DeLand, That night, the trio of Robbie Peto, Daniel Paret and Vlad Nunez no-hit FSU in a 1-0 Stetson win. Amaral and freshman Dominic Stagliano were kinder, allowing FSU to get two hits.
The shutout was the fourth of the season for the Stetson pitching staff and it was the third time this year the Hatters have held an opponent to two or fewer hits.
Stetson improved to 21-23 on the year as the Hatters posted their second consecutive mid-week victory over a nationally-ranked team. FSU falls to 26-16 on the season.
While Amaral (3-2) blanked FSU on two hits - a two-out single in the first inning and a two-out double in the fifth - freshman shortstop Andrew Estrella provided the Hatters all the offense they needed when he blasted a three-run home run off FSU starter Ross Dunn (1-4) in the second inning. It was Estrella's first collegiate home run.
The Hatters added single runs in the fourth, fifth and eighth innings as FSU used eight different pitchers to get through the game.
After getting a variety of fly ball and ground ball outs through the first four innings, Amaral found his groove over his last two frames, recording five of his six strikeouts over those last two innings. Stagliano continued the trend, posting five strikeouts in his three perfect innings to earn his second save of the year.
Besides Estrella's home run, the Hatters scored runs on a bases loaded walk, a two-out triple by Yohann Dessureault and an FSU throwing error. Estrella, Cameron Hill and Kyle Ball had two hits each in the game for Stetson.
Stetson will return to ASUN play this weekend in Jacksonville where they will take on the Ospreys of North Florida in a three-game series. The Hatters won two of three games from UNF in early April and if Stetson is going to have any chance to advance to the ASUN Tournament at the end of the month, they will need to get on a win streak through the final 11 games of the year.
All three games at UNF will be broadcast on ESPN+ from Harmon Stadium.
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