FSU beats UF in baseball

He wasn’t needed against Maryland over the weekend.So Florida State sophomore pitcher Brian Busch was rested and ready Tuesday night for Florida. That turned out to be bad news for the Gators. The left-hander followed a season-best outing by starter Geoff Parker (4 2/3 innings pitched, three hits, two unearned runs) with a sensational effort in relief as the No. 6 Seminoles beat their archrivals 7-2 in front of 9,276 fans at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.

“(Parker) was shutting them down all night,” said Busch, who struck out six, walked none and allowed three hits in 4 1/3 innings to earn the win. “And I kind of wanted to come in and pick up where he left off.” Which is exactly what he did.

With a 5-2 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth inning, FSU coach Mike Martin had pulled Busch from the game, electing to go with closer Mike McGee to get the final three outs. But Seminoles junior Stuart Tapley then crushed a two-run homer to left field to extend the lead to five. And also extend Busch’s outing.