FSU baseball making push for top-8 national seed
Consistent teams from start to finish, February through May, earn top-8 national seeds.
A year ago, the Florida State baseball team was a model of inconsistency. This Seminoles team has had bumps in the road, err, on the road. But the resume compares favorably to the nation’s top teams and FSU could be home to host a regional for the first time since 2018.
FSU (34-9) is in position to secure a top 8 national seed one year after winning just 23 games and missing out on the NCAA postseason for the first time since the 1970s. That has made the Seminoles one of the best stories nationally in 2024 even though the program has a storied history.
“You're not going to be a top eight seed if you don’t finish the season well, you can get buried early in the season,” FSU coach Link Jarrett said. “You have to start to finish play the game properly and play well and hopefully you can stay healthy. Make no mistake, that's part of it. So if you come out of the gates and are on point and have things organized in a way that the guys understand what they're getting into, you manage the weekends, you manage some tough midweek games. There's no breathing room in the middle of the week. You have to do it start to finish and we're on that track.”
The Seminoles have won plenty of series, from a season sweep of Florida in midweek games to a crowd-pleasing home sweep of Miami. There are also ACC series wins over Notre Dame, Louisville, Boston College and Duke last weekend.
FSU’s win over Duke is even more important considering the Seminoles picked up two victories on the road against a top-10 program. Despite being swept at Clemson in March and suffering a pair of one-run losses at Wake in April, the Seminoles are No. 5 in the RPI, behind only Texas A&M, Kentucky, Arkansas and Clemson.
The RPI discussion is relevant with the calendar turning to May. FSU plays host to NC State, which is No. 20 in the D1baseball.com rankings as well as No. 28 in the RPI, in a three-game series that begins Friday at 6 p.m. (ACC Network Extra) at Dick Howser Stadium. The Seminoles will also play RPI No. 96 Pittsburgh and No. 53 Georgia Tech to wrap up the regular season.
FSU is projected to host a regional as a No. 6 seed by Baseball America as well as a No. 7 seed by D1baseball.com. But, yes, the Seminoles have to finish well in May.
“We're not finished,” Jarrett said. “You have to finish. And to be one of those seeds is important. It gives you a chance to obviously be at home for a regional and hopefully you're at home for a Super Regional. Your goal is getting to Omaha and the best way to get to Omaha would be to play those postseason series here.”
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FSU hasn’t hosted a regional in six years. While that includes one season lost due to the pandemic, the Seminoles have played as a No. 2 or No. 3 seed in regionals at Athens in 2019 (with stunning success to start Mike Martin Sr.'s "One Last Run") as well as at Oxford in 2021 and Auburn in 2022 (with humbling losses to some top SEC schools).
Jarrett knows the importance of hosting well, although he has had success as Notre Dame’s coach, including in 2022 when the team knocked off No. 1 overall seed Tennessee in a Super Regional at Knoxville. But in 2021, Notre Dame lost in three games at Mississippi State in the Supers.
“I think I played in probably two of the most difficult if not the two most difficult,” Jarrett said. “It's not easy to go to some of these places to win Super Regionals. Clearly the pathway that is most conducive is to do that stuff here.”
An edge this time around would be more than the home crowd. FSU is 23-2 at home and 7-7 on the road. A younger bullpen light on experience and taxed by injuries to starting pitchers struggled at Clemson and at Wake. It’s easy to see why the Seminoles would want to sleep in their own beds for a regional, enjoying the fan support as the host and No. 1 seed as they make a push for a Super Regional.
FSU could also get a bump from Ben Barrett’s return, while Cam Leiter and Conner Whittaker work their way back into the mix. Barrett threw two pitches in Sunday’s game at Duke, the first time the right-hander was back on the mound since March.
“The velocity is on the scoreboards basically everywhere we play now,” Jarrett said. “So when we're expecting a and we get be, you know, it was a little concerning. So we felt like that was enough. We wanted to get him in that game. We had to get him in that game. … But we were trying to get him in there and we did and it just didn't quite look like we had seen it.”
Jarrett again sounded encouraged about Whittaker and Leiter returning, although neither would be available this weekend.
“Conner is coming along a little more quickly than then Leiter,” Jarrett said. “But it's all positive. We don't have any huge concern right now. There would be no more discussion if there were massive concerns with this. Now there are concerns because you've got two talented pitchers that haven't been out there in quite some time. You hope you get them back. Their health and safety is first. Then their ramp up is second and then back out is third. And it's got to stay in that order and we're not going to push them. They both want to get out there. They're at different phases of things.
“Whitt’s going to ramp it up pretty good this weekend. And then we'll know more after he jumps on that mound and really opens it up in his bullpen where we stand with him.”
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