FSU baseball bats keep fueling team's hot start to 2024 season

The further into the season it gets, the harder it is to deny.

This Florida State baseball offense is legit.

Eleven games into the season, the Seminoles have scored at least seven runs in each of their games. More recently, they've scored 11-plus runs in five of their last six games, accentuated by a 19-3 home win over FGCU Wednesday.

That offensive consistency is one of the major reasons why the Seminoles are 11-0 entering this weekend's series vs. New Orleans (8-4) at Dick Howser Stadium (Friday at 5 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m., Sunday at 1 p.m.) and one of the final four undefeated Division I teams this season along with TCU, Texas A&M and UC Irvine.

The schedule hasn't been very hard to date with FSU's strength of schedule ranked 140th nationally, the worst of any team in the top 40 of the RPI. However, that will change in the near future, especially starting next Tuesday at Florida and with ACC play getting underway next weekend vs. Notre Dame.

Still, it's undeniable regardless of who the Seminoles have played that their team batting average of .374 (best nationally out of 295 DI teams and 10 points better than any major conference team) speaks to a much-improved offensive approach this season.

"The guys work really hard at it. We've talked about it before. The hours they spend on their offensive game and looking at video and assistant coaches prepare the scouting reports so we have an idea going into this what the arms are going to look like," FSU head coach Link Jarrett said. "The work in the cages, we've improved the cages and we've upgraded some of the things we do down there for player development. You're seeing some of the players develop, which is a huge part of this. Recruiting, talent acquisition is part of it. It's the whole listed body of work that these guys set out to accomplish here with their daily work. It's our responsibility to bring capable guys into the program the best that we can."

That last part is certainly something Jarrett and his staff have done with great success. 11 games into the season, 11 FSU players have had 15-plus at-bats and 10 of those 11 are hitting .325 or better on the season.

There are the individual standouts for sure. Junior outfielder James Tibbs III has six home runs, twice as many as anyone else on the team. Sophomore third baseman Cam Smith has a .500 batting average through 50 at-bats this season, tied for 14th-best in the country this season.

But it's been a total team effort. Six Seminole hitters are averaging more than a hit per game and FSU is truly capable of getting significant production from any spot in the batting order, something that is accentuated by FSU's much better balanced lineup of lefties and righties this season.

"When you have a pretty good group of lefties and righties mixed, it's hard when you're pitching, you can't really get into a consistent rhythm because you're not facing three or four righties in a row or three or four lefties," Jarrett said. "Just the visual and the look and the feel, it gets a little tougher when you have competitive left, right, left, right."

FSU is also benefitting from having depth beyond its traditional nine-person batting order. Alabama transfer Jaxson West and McGwire Holbrook are platooning at the catcher spot this season and both having a great deal of success, with each hitting .381 or better with 19 RBI (West 10, Holbrook 9).

Another Alabama transfer Max Williams is pushing for more playing time as the Seminoles' fourth outfielder with eight hits and 11 runs scored in 22 at-bats.

Jarrett sees that level of competition as something that can push everyone to be better instead of becoming a negative in the locker room.

"We're trying to keep as many of those guys engaged and involved and clearly there are some talented kids here that aren't necessarily starting the bulk of these games. It's a luxury to have," Jarrett said. "I think the competition within the team itself pushes the team along because everybody has got to stay on point with what they're doing at the plate, on the mound and for that matter defensively. You hear coaches in all sports talk about the competition that talented rosters provide. We have that and it's a neat thing to have.

"Managing those guys and trying to find the right times and the right matchups to use everybody, that's what we talk about and think about as these games evolve from a coaching side. It's fun."

When junior-college pitcher Gavin Adams elected to enroll at FSU over his 11th-round selection by the Washington Nationals last summer, it was seen as a coup for the Seminoles.

Unfortunately for Adams, his 2024 season has ended before it even began. After he didn't appear in any of the first 10 games of the season and posted a picture of himself on Instagram earlier this week in a hospital bed, Jarrett confirmed Wednesday night that Adams has undergone Tommy John surgery and will miss the entire season.

"Unfortunately, that injury is far too prevalent in our sport. If we could ever figure this thing out, it's an unfortunate injury. It sets guys back," Jarrett said. "There's different types of procedures now so the timeline for this, you're still looking at the better part of a year for that procedure. It's unfortunate because you guys never got to see in a game what that looked like.

Adams brought some firepower in the form of the ability to throw fastballs in excess of 100 miles per hour in fall and preseason scrimmages. Jarrett shared he thinks Adams suffered the injury when throwing on the day of FSU's rained-out Saturday game vs. Butler back on opening weekend.

It's unclear at this time if Adams would return to FSU next season. An MLB team may take a chance on him because of his stuff even coming off of the injury, but if he were to return and succeed with the Seminoles, he would have the opportunity to significantly boost his draft stock.

"He was making strides, his outings were getting a little better and a little cleaner and I feel awful for him because he put in a lot. There's a lot of good baseball ahead of him," Jarrett said. "It stinks that he had to go through that, but if there is something to have as a pitcher, that's probably the procedure that the industry has figured out. Guys sometimes come back even better."

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