Florida State baseball continued its hot streak, reaching 15-0 after securing another series win this past weekend against Lipscomb. The Noles collected two dominant victories spearheaded by outstanding performances on the mound by Joey Volini and Wes Mendes, both racking up double-digit strikeouts. (Jamie Arnold DNP on Friday due to an illness, and the Sunday game was cancelled due to weather).
FSU is one of the last two remaining undefeated teams, along with reigning national (check swing) champion Tennessee, and climbed their way into the top 5 of D1 Baseball’s most recent rankings. The Noles are top 25 in scoring (9.3 runs per game), top 5 in batting average (.345), and top 5 in ERA (2.45). Link Jarrett has this program rolling as despite losing key pieces from last year’s top 5 team, they haven’t skipped a beat.
However, the real test for this program begins with a massive week ahead. It is hard to go undefeated in baseball no matter who you play, and we have seen all but two teams stumble at some point this season. With that said, it is fair to admit that the level of competition hasn’t been the greatest and is about to ramp up very quickly.
It starts with a midweek top 10 rivalry showdown against the No.7 Gators (15-2) on Tuesday, March 11th, at 6 pm. This will be FSU’s first ranked opponent and first from the Power 4 conferences. FSU currently sits at number 22 in RPI with a strength of schedule ranking at 201st. UF is 33rd in RPI with a SOS ranking of 158th. The Gators are top 10 in batting average (.336), top 20 in ERA (3.21), and top 30 in scoring (9.1 RPG).
FSU will have the Howser advantage with the game being in Tallahassee. The Noles are 13-0 at home this season, meanwhile, the Gators are 2-1 on the road. Florida already has a quality series win over Miami (12-5), but they also got shellacked 13-3 by UCF in their most recent road game last Tuesday.
Of course, midweek games are hard to judge because it’s like facing a football team with your backup quarterbacks. Neither will face the starting weekend rotation, but this is by far the Seminoles’ biggest test of the season, which comes the same week that conference play begins.
Florida State has cruised through their non-conference schedule, but now the fun begins as FSU will face a conference opponent for every weekend series throughout the rest of the regular season, starting this weekend with Boston College. FSU will take on the Eagles (6-6) at Howser this weekend. They may not pop off the stat sheet like Florida, but conference play can be a different and unpredictable animal. Just take last weekend’s results as an example. A handful of ACC teams started conference play, and there were a few surprising scores.
Newly ranked Stanford (12-3) walked into Chapel Hill and handed the previously undefeated and top 5 ranked Tar Heels (14-2) their first loss of the season and won the series two games to one decisively (GM One: 13-9 I GM Two: 7-0). The same BC team that FSU will face this weekend traveled to top 10 ranked Virginia and put up 22 runs on their way to a win in Charlottesville, however, the Hoos did secure the series win. Lastly, Cal run-ruled Duke, who was a favorite to compete for the conference title at the beginning of the season.
It just shows how difficult conference play can be, and the ACC has a handful of good teams. FSU has four series on the horizon against currently ranked ACC foes. This week will go a long way in allowing the Seminoles to back up their top 5 ranking. They have looked good so far, but it’s time to prove it against better competition. I suspect the Noles are up for the challenge, though. This is a big week for FSU baseball and us fans alike! Thanks for reading and Go Noles!
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