The Florida State softball team headed into the Dugout Classic with aspirations of dominating and playing sound, fundamental softball.
Unfortunately, Alabama put a stop to the Seminoles’ plans of coming away with a few victories. FSU did win a few games in the Dugout Classic, but both were run-rule victories over Darthmouth. Alabama, however, came into JoAnn Graf Field and utterly dominated the Seminoles 8-0 in the first game on Friday night and followed that up with a 5-1 victory on Saturday.
FSU still has one more game to go in the Dugout Classic, playing Elon on Sunday afternoon.
One of the biggest issues for the Seminoles occurred in Friday night’s game when junior infielder Isa Torres collided with an Alabama runner that was on her way to third base.
“She’s in concussion protocol,” FSU coach Lonni Alameda said. “I imagine this week we’ll see.”
The injury was brutal, as it looked like Torres bent her neck and hit her head pretty hard. She stayed in the game on Friday but on Saturday she was scratched from the Dartmouth and Alabama games. The play itself where Torres was injured was ruled as defensive interference on her part.
“They said the ball was way past her on that play,” Alameda said. “I was questioning the protection to the plate, I get protection to three, but I don’t get protection to home, so I was a little curious on that one.”
On Saturday, sophomore pitcher Jazzy Francik got the start and has by far been FSU’s best pitcher through the 2026 season. This game wasn’t her best as Alabama’s hitters teed off on her from the beginning and ended up scoring four runs. Senior Makenna Reid hit the circle and couldn’t do much better, giving up three hits and one run, before being pulled for junior Ashtyn Danley, who was the only pitcher on the day to not give up a run.
Alabama’s pitchers were as solid as ever as Vic Moten struck out seven Seminoles in a complete game shutout on Friday, while Jocelyn Briski pitched a complete game, with nine strikeouts and one run.
To add more injuries for the Seminoles, junior infielder Angelee Bueno took a bad hop on a ground ball that hit her in the face. Like Torres, Bueno stayed in the game despite the injury.
“We’re taking a beating right now,” Alameda said. "I don’t know if the softball gods turned on us but we’ll pull them back in our corner eventually real soon. But she’ll have a little bruised lip for a while but we’re a tough group.”
FSU was able to flex its muscle against inferior Dartmouth 8-0. However, when facing a real team who is ranked, they struggled mightily. Seminole fans will have to go through some growing pains before ACC play due to the number of freshmen on the team and the experience they sorely lack at this point of the season.
Up next
FSU will wrap up the Dugout Classic on Sunday against Elon at 12:30 p.m.
