FSU baseball turns attention to JU road midweek game after sweep of Butler

You can't ask for much more than what Florida State baseball did in its opening-weekend series vs. Butler.

Against an inferior opponent, the Seminoles did exactly what they were supposed to do against the Bulldogs, winning the two games (Saturday's game was canceled due to severe weather all day long) by a combined margin of 26-6 with an 11-0 shutout Friday and a 15-5 win Sunday.

Next up for FSU (2-0) is the first road game of the season Tuesday night at Jacksonville (6 p.m. on ESPN+). The Dolphins enter their first of three games against FSU this season with a 2-0 record after sweeping a doubleheader of Cincinnati at home on Friday.

With FSU able to play just two games from this weekend series, Sunday starting pitcher Conner Whittaker did not get into a game vs. Butler.

FSU announced Monday afternoon that Whittaker will make his first start of the season Tuesday night against the Dolphins. Jacksonville will start junior Richard Long.

Before turning attention ahead to that JU game, here are three takeaways from FSU baseball's strong opening-weekend showing against Butler.

We thought coming into the season that this FSU weekend rotation could have some of the best stuff we've seen on the mound in recent program history.

Even against a team that wasn't expected to put up much of a fight, we certainly saw that from the two starting pitchers we got to see over the weekend.

Friday starter and UCF transfer Cam Leiter threw quite a few fastballs at 98 miles per hour during his FSU debut in the season opener, throwing all of his off-speed pitches (change-up, slider and curveball) effectively in the zone to rack up a career-high 13 strikeouts over nine innings of work.

Saturday starter and sophomore lefty Jamie Arnold started the second game of the weekend Sunday afternoon and was similarly effective. His fastball was up to 96 miles per hour early in his outing and he was similarly effective, allowing one unearned run on two hits over five innings. He struck out nine and was also remarkably effective, needing just 70 pitches to get through five frames.

These two starters combined to allow no earned runs on four hits over 10 innings of work with 22 strikeouts. Even more important than a lot of that, they combined to issue just two walks over their outings, helping assuage what was one of the bigger concerns about the FSU staff entering the season.

That problem existed slightly later in Sunday's game, with five relievers issuing a combined eight walks over four innings in the series finale. But still, it's hard not to feel very good about what the starting pitchers gave FSU in its opening series.

The statistics aren't worth reading into too much from Leiter and Arnold's first starts of the season. However, the stuff they put on display is. If that's the level of effectiveness we'll see from these two this season, that's an encouraging sign going forward with some tough opposing lineups on FSU's horizon later this season.

Much has been made about FSU's remarkably high level of roster turnover this offseason.

The Seminoles brought in 26 new players for the 2024 season, largely overhauling a roster that was not up to snuff in 2023.

Quite a few of those newcomers -- 17, to be exact -- got the opportunity to make their FSU debuts during the two-game series vs. Butler. And quite a few of those new Seminoles made their most of that chance.

Starting with Leiter's five innings of work Friday night, four new FSU pitchers combined to throw a four-hit shutout in the season opener. Junior-college transfer Carson Dorsey threw two shutout innings and then freshmen Hudson Rowan and Matt Sauser threw a scoreless inning apiece to secure the shutout.

Six Seminole batters had three or more hits in FSU's first two games of the season, but no one had more than second baseman Drew Faurot. The UCF transfer and FSU legacy, whose dad, Adam, played at FSU in 1995 and '96, finished the weekend 5 for 10 with four runs scored.

Tallahassee Community College transfer Marco Dinges went 3 for 3 with a trio of singles in his first career start at FSU Friday night while serving as the designated hitter.

UNF shortstop transfer Alex Lodise finished the weekend with only one hit and one run batted in but walked a team-high four times in two games.

Alabama transfer catcher Jaxson West got the Opening Day start and scored a pair of runs off a pair of walks he drew.

USF first base transfer Daniel Cantu was incredibly unlucky to have just one hit on the weekend as he had probably the most consistent hard contact in the FSU lineup throughout the weekend and just found himself consistently hitting balls right at defenders.

Even a few reserve players, Alabama transfer outfielder Max Williams and freshman infielder Cal Fisher, got in on the action late in the Seminoles' season-opening win as they hit back-to-back home runs in each of their first career FSU at-bats in the eighth inning Friday.

It probably won't be close to the volume it was this past weekend going forward.

But FSU got off to a remarkably effective and efficient start to its 2024 season on the basepaths.

After stealing 31 bases in 43 attempts over 54 games last season, the Seminoles were a perfect 11 for 11 in stolen-base attempts over their two games against Butler.

Seven Seminoles stole at least one base, led by Faurot with three and DeAmez Ross and Jaime Ferrer with one each.

Like I said, I don't imagine FSU will steal nearly this much every weekend going forward. Butler allowed 119 stolen bases last season (over two per game) so it would seem this was a weakness that FSU saw it could exploit for some in-game baserunning practice.

However, it's certainly a part of the game that Jarrett wants to utilize more this season. And it would appear he has a more athletic roster which could present more opportunities for the Seminoles to steal extra bases to give the offense a boost.

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