Florida State Baseball heads north to take on Boston College

Coming off of a loss at the hands of UF in Jacksonville, the Florida State Seminoles (18-6, 6-1) will look to bounce back on the road against Boston College (14-9, 3-6) as the teams will play a three game weekend series.

The top of the order for the 'Noles continues to be  Taylor Walls, John Sansone and Cal Raleigh setting the tone. The shortstop Walls leads the team with 98 at bats and is second with a .378 batting average. He has been getting on base, and been effective when on by leading the team in stolen bases with seven. Behind him is Sansone who has improved on his contact rate this year. Leading the team with a .385 batting average and 31 RBIs, the third baseman has only struck out nine times in 115 plate appearances. Freshman Raleigh has started to show his power off, homering for his team leading fourth time against UF. Hitting .350 with a .486 on-base percentage, the catcher has had no problem transitioning into the college baseball scene. These three have helped rank the Seminole's batting average 33rd in the nation and third in on-base percentage.

Boston College has their fair share of high average hitting players as well, starting with infielder Joe Cronin. The senior leads the Eagles in hitting (.360 AVG), home runs (3), doubles (6), triples (3), RBIs (22), and on-base percentage (.456). He has played in each of Boston College's 23 games and has 10 multi-hit games. Coming into the series hot is junior Michael Strem. In his last three games, the utility man is 7-12 with five RBIs. The fielding of the team is very similar to that of Florida State, as BC has a team fielding percentage of .972.

In game one of the series--set to begin on Friday at 2:30 PM-- the 'Noles will send out senior Mike Compton. The Missouri native is 3-1 with a 4.02 ERA and has faltered slightly as of late, giving up eight earned runs in his last 7 2/3 innings pitched over two starts. The Eagles will counter with Mike King, who is 4-1 with a 2.82 ERA to begin the season. The junior pitches to contact, only striking out 27 batters in his 38 innings pitched.

On Saturday at 1:30 PM, game two of the series, Drew Carlton (4-1, 3.49 ERA) will get the start for FSU. Carlton will look to get back on track after suffering his first loss of the season against UF where he allowed two runs in two innings pitched. For BC, lefty Jesse Adams (2-3, 5.54 ERA), will look to turn his season around against the Seminoles. The patience of Florida State should be a benefit as Adams has walked 16 batters in his first 26 innings pitched. He has also allowed three earned runs in each of his last three games, not making it past five innings in any of those appearances.

In the series finale at 1:00 PM on Sunday, the 'Noles will get tested. They will square off against Boston College's Jacob Stevens. Stevens has had a stellar start to the season, owning a 2-0 record with a microscopic 0.53 ERA in 34 innings. In those 34 innings, the freshman has struck out 36 batters and walked 13. Florida State will send out a freshman of their own in Cole Sands, who is 3-2 with a 2.93 ERA to begin the season. In his 24 innings pitched, Sands has struck out 15 batters while walking 15 others.

The weather report this weekend in Boston, MA, has rain forecasted for all three days, with a chance of snow on Sunday. That is not unfamiliar for FSU however, as they played in the white stuff against Pitt just two weekends prior.