A tough weekend got tougher on Sunday.
Florida State baseball closed out the Amegy Bank College Baseball Classic in Arlington with a 10-1 drubbing at the hands of Nebraska, capping a 1-2 showing at Globe Life Field that left a lot of questions unanswered. The Noles head home to Tallahassee at 4-2 on the season, and while there's plenty of time to course correct, this one stings.
Make no mistake, this wasn't a close game that slipped away. Nebraska controlled this one from the first pitch. By the time the dust settled, the Cornhuskers had hung ten runs on six FSU pitchers, collected ten hits, and never really looked threatened. The Noles, meanwhile, mustered a grand total of two hits and one run — a solo home run by Myles Bailey in the fourth inning that briefly made it a 5-1 game before Nebraska pulled away for good. That was it. That was the offense. The bats went cold in Texas as the FSU offense went 3-53 with 23 strikeouts in their last 16 innings.
The offense going cold is the story of the back half of this weekend. After jumping on Auburn for four runs in the first inning on Saturday, FSU managed just six runs combined over the final 17 innings of the tournament. The bats have gone completely silent, and the Noles left five runners on base on Sunday while going 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. That's simply not a recipe for winning baseball.
On the mound, things weren't any prettier. Starter Payton Manca lasted just one-third of an inning, surrendering three runs on two hits and two walks before the hook came. Nebraska's Dylan Carey did the most damage, going 3-for-5 with five RBI on the afternoon, including a ground-rule double in the first that blew the game open and a two-run homer in the seventh that put any remaining doubt to bed.
FSU used six arms in total, and Nebraska scored at least once in four different innings. The bullpen did flash some encouraging signs late: Jake Echols and Rhett Vaughn each tossed scoreless frames, but the damage was long done by then. Trey Beard did make his FSU debut in limited relief He started with a clean 1-2-3 innings but gave up 3 earned runs and a walk with only one strikeout in 2.1 innings.
"Not proud of how this looked today. But we have to take the growth and the information from it and try to learn and apply it."
— Link Jarrett, Head Coach
So, Now What?
Here's the honest assessment: this was a bad weekend. Going 1-2 in Arlington with losses to Auburn and Nebraska, and dropping the last game 10-1, is not what anyone had in mind when the Noles packed their bags for Texas. The pitching depth is a real concern right now. FSU doesn't have a reliable arm that can eat innings and keep the team in ballgames when the offense is struggling, and that combination is going to get you beat. Wild pitches have been an issue all weekend. The walks have been an issue. When you add it all up, the pitching staff gave up 18 runs over the final two games of this tournament. That's not sustainable. Right now, FSU has Wes Mendes and John Abraham that they can confidently count on. The offense needs to find itself, too. The Noles need more production throughout the order.
That said, let's not overreact. It's February. This is a 56-game season, and two losses in week two of the year don't define anybody. FSU still has the talent to be a very good baseball team. The program has weathered tough early stretches before and found its footing. The pieces are there. The coaching staff knows it, the players know it, and frankly we know it too, even if Sunday left a bad taste.
But there are things that need to get figured out, and quickly. The pitching staff needs to find some consistency. The offense needs to stop leaving runners on base and start putting together multi-inning threats instead of one big inning followed by silence. And the wild pitches must stop. You can't gift-wrap runs to quality opponents and expect to win.
Looking Ahead
The Noles are back home at Dick Howser Stadium next week when they host North Florida on Wednesday and The Citadel for a weekend series. It's time to get back in the win column, flush this Arlington trip, and start showing what this team is really made of. This group is better than a 10-1 loss to Nebraska. Time to prove it.
Stay tuned to your source for fan-focused FSU coverage here at Plant The Spear. Thanks for reading and Go Noles!