FSU's strong finish separating it from the pack for No. 8 overall NCAA seed
Link Jarrett has been a part of some heartbreaking postseason snubs in his time as a head coach.
His 2021 Notre Dame team won the ACC by four games with a remarkable 25-10 conference record and finished the season No. 5 in RPI and viewed as a very likely top-eight national seed in the NCAA Tournament.
It was quite a bit of a stunner at that moment and forced Jarrett's Irish squad to play a super regional away from home at Mississippi State, one ND lost to come up short of the College World Series.
"That was tough. I'm on the committee now so I'm involved with the calls assessing our conference," Jarrett said Saturday. "Those were difficult calls to try to explain to a team that seemed like they had earned a better hand at this."
The next year, the Irish were a fringe regional host, but didn't make the top 16 and were forced to pave their entire path to the CWS -- the program's first appearance in 20 years and just the second since 1957 -- on the road at Georgia Southern and No. 1 overall seed Tennessee.
In Jarrett's second season back at his alma mater atop the Florida State baseball program, it seemed the Seminoles were in a similar spot.
This year's FSU team had all but locked up a regional hosting spot entering the final few weeks of the regular season. However, they were quite firmly on the national seed bubble in pursuit of a top-eight seed which allows the team's entire path to Omaha to go through home games.
While nothing will be official until the field is announced Monday afternoon, FSU was already projected as the No. 8 overall seed before the Seminoles advanced to the ACC Championship Game with a 9-6 win over Wake Forest on Saturday afternoon. D1Baseball's Aaron Fitt now says FSU is an "ironclad" top-eight seed for the NCAA Tournament after the semifinal victory over the Demon Deacons.
What did the experts say about FSU entering Saturday's game?
Entering the last few weeks, FSU was entrenched in a battle with the likes of Georgia, Wake Forest, Virginia and NC State for that desirable final national seed spot.
Wake removed itself in the final weekend of the regular season when it was swept by NC State. The Wolfpack was eliminated when it failed to advance out of its ACC Tournament pool. Virginia was eliminated with its 12-7 loss to FSU Friday in Charlotte.
Georgia entered the week as the No. 8 seed in projections, but went one-and-done in the SEC Tournament with a loss to LSU and has been forced to watch from home this week after losing control of its fate.
While the Bulldogs are an impressive 21-13 in Quad 1 and Quad 2 games this season, they lost three of their last four to close out their pre-NCAA Tournament season.
By contrast, FSU has won six of its last seven games after Saturday's win. SInce the Seminoles dropped a series at Pittsburgh and then suffered a midweek loss at Stetson, they've been playing some of their most inspired baseball starting with their regular-season finale series vs. Georgia Tech.
"I'm very proud of the way the guys responded all year and again today performed in a very nice manner," Jarrett said after Saturday's win.
FSU has scored at least eight runs in each of its last six games dating back to the start of the GT series. Before that, FSU had scored eight runs just three times in its previous 10 games.
On the mound over that same span, FSU's pitching staff has allowed an average of 6.5 runs per game over the last six against a trio of prolific offenses in Gt, Virginia and Wake.
"The response by our guys all year, people ask about last year and the response to start this year by winning 19 games in a row probably set the wheels in motion for how you want to evaluate this team," Jarrett said. "That's a heck of a response and they've answered and answered and answered."
After FSU beat Virginia on Friday to advance to the ACC Semifinals, Jarrett said he was absolutely convinced his team was worthy of a top-eight seed.
After Saturday's win over Wake, Jarrett spoke with even more certainty of his team's deservedness of a national seed.
"This team is one of the best eight teams in the country, there's no question in my mind. They've responded time and time and time again," Jarrett said. "That's not ultimately my decision. You guys study it, the committee clearly watches everything that's going on this weekend more closely than I can. These guys have earned it. They've performed in all phases of the game. The depth on the mound, is that now nine guys with saves? That's not easy to do. The depth of this, the athleticism of the team, the versatility offensively, the balance offensively. They've earned the right."
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