3 Up, 3 Down: Longest losing streak in FSU history continues

The Florida State Seminoles (12-15, 3-9) got swept by Miami over the weekend to lose their ninth straight game, continuing the longest losing streak in program history. FSU is in a rough spot as across the board, nothing is going well — while they did show some fight against Miami, they couldn’t get the job done in any of the matchups.

3 Up

• Connor Whittaker got his first start at FSU and gave the ‘Noles about everything they wanted. He threw five innings of a five-hit ball giving up two earned runs and recording just two free bases while striking out five. While he did end up with the loss that had more to do with the offense than his work. Hopefully, Whittaker can do it again and come out with a win next time as he’ll surely be asked to start next weekend.
• The football spring game is less than two weeks away.
• The softball team beat the tar out of Georgia Tech.

3 Down

• Link Jarrett has asked FSU batters to attack pitchers early in the count to cut down on strikeouts and, hopefully, get a few better pitches to make contact on. This should also help cut down on the amount of thinking batters have to do in a plate appearance as you aren’t looking for a perfect pitch early, just a good pitch. Fans have been calling for this for years as FSU is traditionally a team that works the count and builds their offense off of walks. Unfortunately, it’s not working. FSU totaled 13 hits on the week, just five walks, and 31 walks. They also scored only six runs on the weekend, which matches the total number of pitchers Miami had to use. Maybe the recent slump is more of an issue of facing four top-25 teams in BC, UF, UVA, and UM but either way, it’s not working.
• The pitching is what it is. They walk a lot of batters, hit a few, move some over with wild pitches, get themselves in bad counts, and end up giving up hard contact. It’s hard to figure out what to say at this point that hasn’t already been said. Maybe a one-two punch of Jackson Baumeister and Connor Whittaker can do enough to save the bullpen and give the team enough of a lift to get the off this losing streak but that seems like a big, and unfair, ask.
• At least FSU is consistent, as in they are bad at pretty much everything. The Seminoles tacked on another seven errors on the weekend leading to six unearned runs, five in game one. The ‘Noles were 174th in the country in fielding percentage to start the weekend and they didn’t help themselves. So to recap, FSU is not scoring runs, struggles to get outs and when outs are there to be made they aren’t making them. Oof.

Up next:

FSU hosts Jacksonville on Tuesday at 6:00 and then Clemson for an Easter weekend series starting Thursday at 6:00.