FSU baseball heads into rivalry week vs. Florida, Miami on a roll

It's been quite a few years since the Florida State baseball team started a season this well.

Now past the halfway point of the regular season, the Seminoles are 26-5 (7-5 ACC) after pulling off a 4-1 week capped off with a road series win at Boston College over the weekend. That record is a stark improvement from a season ago when FSU was 13-18 (4-11 in ACC) through 31 games.

That record through 31 games is the best by an FSU team since the 2014 squad starting 27-5. With wins in the next two games, FSU's 28-5 record would be its best start since the 2008 team started the season 33-3.

The No. 10 Seminoles will look to keep rolling this week with four rivalry games at home. First, FSU will look to finish off a season sweep of rival Florida (17-14, 6-6 SEC) Tuesday night at Dick Howser Stadium at 7 p.m. (ESPN2).

FSU has already clinched its first regular-season series victory against the Gators since 2015 with a 12-8 win in Gainesville on March 12 and a 14-3 run-rule victory (eight innings) in Jacksonville on March 26.

Now, the Seminoles are looking to sweep the Gators for the first time since a two-game series back in 2002. FSU last swept UF in a series of three-plus games all the way back in 2000.

The sweep would be quite notable considering FSU had won just three of its last 20 games against Florida entering the 2024 season.

FSU announced via its game notes Monday that freshman right-hander John Abraham (1-1, 4.91 ERA) will make his second career start Tuesday vs. the Gators. He threw a career-high 3.1 no-hit innings out of the bullpen in the Seminoles' win over UF in Jacksonville two weeks ago.

Florida has announced that junior righty Ryan Slater (2-0, 3.86 ERA) will get the start Tuesday after freshman Alex Philpott started the first two games vs. the Seminoles. Slater appeared out of the bullpen in both the first two FSU games this season, throwing an inning in each game and allowing a combined four runs on five hits.

After the final midweek game against the Gators, the Seminoles host their other primary rival, Miami (15-16, 6-9 in ACC), for a three-game series which begins Thursday at 7 p.m. on ACC Network.

This week presents quite the chance for FSU to further bolster its resume. The Seminoles were the No. 3 overall seed in Baseball America's midseason NCAA Tournament projection last week and the No. 7 overall seed according to D1Baseball.

That all four games will be played within the friendly confines of Howser, where the Seminoles are 18-1 this season, is an added bonus.

Three years ago, FSU hogged the ACC's postseason awards with Parker Messick winning ACC Pitcher of the Year and Freshman of the Year while catcher Mat Nelson took home ACC Player of the Year.

FSU may not have a contender for FOTY this season -- and Georgia Tech has a runaway favorite in Drew Burress -- but the Seminoles seem positioned to potentially sweep the other two awards this season for the second time in four years.

Junior right fielder James Tibbs III and sophomore starting pitcher Jamie Arnold seem to be emerging as frontrunners to win the ACC's season awards with the regular season now past the halfway point.

Coming off a weekend where he had four doubles and seven runs batted in at Boston College, Tibbs is now tied for the national lead with 52 RBI this season -- four more than any other ACC player. He's also tied for the ACC lead in total bases (104), in the top 20 nationally and second among ACC players in batting average (.421), second in the ACC in on-base percentage (.503) and is tied for third in the ACC in home runs (13). No other ACC player is in the top five among conference players in each of these categories.

Additionally, Tibbs has been the hardest ACC batter to strike out this season with only nine strikeouts in 121 at-bats (13.4 at-bats per strikeout) and has committed no errors with 45 putouts, two assists and quite a few very nice defensive plays in right field to boot.

As for Arnold, the FSU pitcher isn't just the ACC leader in earned run average at 0.94. He remains the national ERA leader eight weeks into the season.

The next two closest players nationally in ERA have each thrown over 10 innings less than the 47.2 Arnold has thrown through his first eight starts this season. And the next closest eligible ACC pitcher in ERA (Louisville's Evan Webster at 2.61) isn't even in the same conversation.

Arnold is also the ACC leader in WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) at 0.84 and batting average against (.174). With 69 strikeouts this season, Arnold is in the top 10 nationally in that category as well. Wake Forest's Chase Burns may be the national and ACC leader in this category with 97 strikeouts over 50.2 innings, but he also has a 3.38 ERA on the season.

When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.

Where: Dick Howser Stadium

TV/Radio: ESPN2 (with Devon Travis on color commentary)/100.7 FM in Tallahassee and online at seminoles.leanplayer.com