The Good:
Florida State saw action from 29 different players this weekend. The Noles offense walked 17 times and struck out only 14 while scoring 36 runs on 42 hits. The Noles pitching was equally as effective allowing only 2 runs all weekend and walked on 5 batters while striking out 16. The staff did a great job throwing more fastballs and less breaking balls and also limited VMI to only 1 extra base hit. The infield defense was notably better, especially up the middle.
The Bad:
Brian Busch was awful in his Saturday start, he faced 15 batters throwing 71 pitches and lasting only 2 2/3 innings. He had major control problems issuing 4 walks and recording only 1 strikeout. The silver lining here is that the Noles got a nearly perfect outing from JUCO transfer Adam Simmons who threw 4 1/3 innings pounding the strike zone throwing 75% strikes.
The Ugly:
Mike Martin fails to recognize that wasting your most precious commodity is idiotic. You have only 27 outs and trading them to move over a runner is not prudent. There were 4 bunt attempts in the first 4 innings of Game 1, back to back safety squeezes in Game 2 and Rafael Lopez trying to bunt for a hit in Game 3. These decisions won’t typically hurt you against teams like VMI but when the competition is better it hurts your chances of scoring runs and ultimately winning games.
You can read full recaps at www.seminoles.com
Other News and Notes:
- After winning only 16 games last year most Georgia Bulldogs fans didn’t think it could get much worse. Well it has, they opened their season getting swept by the Stetson Hatters. Good news for Noles fans as they travel to Athens in 2 weeks.
- The new bats had an obvious impact, the ball clearly did not come off the bat like it used to resulting in no homeruns until the 4th inning of Game 3. Here is a really good article linked by Rob Neyer regarding the new bats.
- This week the Seminoles take on Jacksonville at home Tuesday at 3:30 pm and then Thursday they travel to Clearwater to take on the Phillies at 1:00 pm.