3 Up, 3 Down: FSU’s no-good, bad week comes to an end

Florida State started the year and Link Jarrett era off very hot, finding themselves in the top 25 after an impressive series win over then-No. 8 TCU.

Since that 6-1 start to the season, injuries and in-game issues have begun to pile up, leaving the Seminoles at 12-8 (3-3 ACC) and looking for answers to newly arisen questions.

While FSU started off ACC play with a series win over the Pittsburgh Panthers, the Seminoles followed that up by suffering a midweek two-game series sweep at the hands of UCF (0-2) and losing two straight games to the Boston College Eagles to fail to secure a second-straight conference series win.

3 Up

• FSU started the year with one of the better offenses in the country — it still ranks highly in many categories but had struggled for a bit. On Friday against Boston College that was not the case. FSU used 22 hits and eight walks to bludgeon the Eagles. Ben Barrett in particular had a great day going 5-5 with two home runs, a double and six RBI. Barrett had a good weekend recording an RBI in every game and going 8-14 on the series. He’s becoming somebody that will be difficult to remove from the lineup as the ‘Noles get healthy. He also pitched 3.1 scoreless innings against UCF in the mid-week.
• David Barrett pitched three times on the week and didn’t give up a run in five innings. He struck out six and walked two. While he’s more of a match-up kind of pitcher, it is encouraging to see a pitcher accomplish his given task. Hopefully, this is a corner that he’s turning and is able to pitch a few innings a week.
• Thankfully, FSU is getting a bit healthier as lead-off hitter and center fielder DeAmaz Ross took some at-bats in the DH role on Sunday. The table setter went 1-3 with two walks and a run. Ross can be a crucial part of the lineup as he does a good job of getting on base and putting pressure on an opponent’s defense and pitching staff. While the staff would rather not use him in the DH spot, it’s a good step back for the freshman. It’s also another left-handed bat in a lineup that doesn’t have many.

3 Down

• Five games, five times a pitcher was unable to go more than three innings. You’d think at some point FSU would just luck out and have a starter have an up day, but that hasn’t been the case this year. Going into the year the coaching staff knew they had a thin pitching staff but, unfortunately, nobody has been able to elevate their game to answer some of those questions. Wyatt Crowell, who didn’t pitch this week due to an injury, and Connor Whittaker have been great and solid but it falls off perceptively from there. The rest of the staff has been very up and down at best and it’s hard to figure out where to turn. This looks like it’ll be a broken record for the year.
• Despite an offensive explosion in game one against Boston College Florida State really struggled at the plate this week. The ‘Noles scored three runs a piece in both games against UCF and two runs in the remaining games against BC. Starting pitchers were able to go deep into the game as both UCF starters and one BC starter threw seven innings. On Sunday against BC the Eagles only needed three pitchers to close out the game. Part of the problem is that FSU is missing three starters (DeAmez Ross, Cam Smith and McGwire Holbrook) and part of the problem is that FSU is just not getting enough extra-base hits. On the week FSU and opponents had about 30% of their hits go for extra bases but removing the Friday BC game that drops to 21% for FSU. That’s a bit unfair because that game does count but it’s worth looking into as that game seems like a bit of an outlier. Outside of that game FSU also generated just six walks (add six more in that Friday game) so they aren’t generating a lot of high-value chances.
• The road gets tougher from here on out. Florida State has a couple of midweek games against Florida and weekend series at Miami and at Virginia. All of those teams will be ranked and FSU will not. While the Seminoles could get a bit healthier along the way there are a lot of gaps to fill to produce good winning baseball.

Up next: Florida State hosts Florida Tuesday at 7:00 before embarking on a seven-game road trip.