3 Up, 3 Down: FSU kicks off ACC play with series win

Florida State (11-4, 2-1) got back on the right side of the ledger by taking a mid-week game from Bethune-Cookman and then winning two of three against the visiting Pittsburgh Panthers.

The game FSU did drop vs. Pitt was a seventh-inning game that was ended due to weather.

How did the Seminoles look during those matchups? What stood out from Florida State’s performances and what needs to be cleaned up?

3 Up

• A major issue for FSU so far this year has been questions around pitching. The ‘Noles have struggled to get any sort of consistency. After a rough outing against FGCU Jackson Baumeister is starting to show he can be FSU’s Friday starter. He pitched well against TCU and now against Pitt giving up just one run on three hits in five innings. Wyatt Crowell received his first start of the year and, surprising to no one, he didn’t disappoint. Crowell went six innings of no run ball giving up just three hits. Since FSU’s bullpen is pretty thin getting a good start is key.
• FSU’s offense has been very dangerous this year and while they didn’t put up a ton of runs this weekend, they did put a lot of pressure on the teams they played. Ignoring the BCU game because that opponent was a bit outmatched, the Seminoles had 29 hits on the weekend. Usually you’ll see more than 14 runs on that kind of output and FSU has generally shown that.
• As mentioned before the pitching staff is pretty thin but the coaching staff is doing a good job early in the season to try and find out who can do what. They moved Crowell into a starter role less to see how he’d do there and more to see how the rest of the staff would respond. Can Jamie Arnold handle late innings? His results were mixed but finding out now is better than waiting a few months. They’ve done the same with the lineup moving players around to try and account for the absence of lead off hitter DeAmez Ross. This weekend Treyton Rank got the start in both center field and at the top of the order but they’ve also tried to move Ferrer and Jordan Carrion around the order.

3 Down

• Unfortunately the pitching staff after Baumeister, Crowell and Connor Whittaker is still a big question mark. Whittaker teamed up with Baumeister to just shut down Pitt in game one and the team got some good contributions from Doug Kirkland and Jamie Arnold. Unfortunately, neither Kirkland nor Arnold were particularly impressive the next day and FSU had to use five pitchers in three innings. They did secure the win but it can limit the pen going forward. The pitchers are getting strikeouts (31 on the weekend) but they are also giving up too many walks (20 on the weekend).
• Despite getting a lot of hits the ‘Noles strike out too much and are not generating enough walks to help themselves out. The strike outs are the biggest issue. FSU struck out 43 times on the weekend, which is just under 40% of plate appearances. The pitching staffs they’ve faced aren’t terrible but also aren’t full of the top arms in baseball.
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Florida State vs UCF: How to watch, starting pitchers

Tuesday 5:00 PM

Watch: ACC Network Extra

Listen: Seminoles Radio Network

FSU: TBA

UCF: TBA

Wednesday 4:00 PM

Watch: ACC Network Extra

Listen: Seminoles Radio Network

FSU: TBA

UCF: TBA