Florida State is coming off a rough ACC Tournament that saw them go 0-3 at the hands of some very good teams. The Noles were competitive in two of the three games but that is not to say there is some cause for concern moving forward. The good news is that the Seminoles had a great regular season where they won a record number of conference games and finished with an overall record of 42-15. That performance was good enough to earn them a national seed which means they will get to play at home all the way through super regionals. The bad news is the teams that Florida State will have to play to advance to the College World Series.
Mississippi State entered the SEC Tournament as a #7 seed and played excellent defeating Vanderbilt in the finals to win the Tournament. The Seminoles will have tough task getting out of this bracket as the Bulldogs are very hot and have one of the best pitching staffs in the country. Samford and UAB finish out the bracket but I don't believer either team poses a serious threat. If the Noles do advance to Supers they will host the winner of the Stanford regional.
Inside we will have a quick look back on how the Seminoles have performed over the last month...
Over the past month Florida State has had a losing record going 6-8 in the fourteen games they have played. Twelve of the games played were against opponents with a RPI of 33 or better, the only outlier was Stetson who checks in at 58. So what has been the cause of the recent struggles, lets take a look at how the offense has fared.
As you can see the offense doesn't seem to be having too many issues. Power numbers are down a bit as well as their on-base percentage but that is to be expected when the caliber of the opponent has been what is is. Moving into the postseason scoring almost six runs a game should be enough to win games which means the pitching has to get better.
The pitching has really struggled as of late. Yes the freshman starters have done okay but they have been taken out of games before they got into real trouble which is why their ERA is not as bad as the bullpen. In the last month starters have only pitched six plus innings four times which means a lot of pressure is put on the bullpen. Unfortunately the bullpen has really struggled, what was at one point a strength has been extremely inconsistent and there are very few arms the Noles can count on to get outs.
Florida State will have to play better than they have over the past month if they are to advance to Supers. Their draw isn't very favorable in my opinion and I would really be surprised to see them get past this really talented Mississippi State team. But despite having one of the best staffs in the country the Bulldogs do not boast a great offense so FSU winning this bracket is still a possibility.
A complete and comprehensive preview of every team to come later in the week.
Go Noles!