The good news for the Florida State baseball team is that its full weekend rotation is expected to be available for the start of ACC play.

The twist is that the order in which they pitch will be shuffled.

FSU head coach Link Jarrett announced Thursday that the No. 5 Seminoles (15-1) will start Joey Volini on Friday, Jamie Arnold on Saturday and Wes Mendes on Sunday for their first conference series vs. Boston College (7-6) this weekend at Dick Howser Stadium.

Arnold, a contender to be the first overall pick in this year's MLB Draft, was a late scratch from last Friday's game vs. Lipscomb due to a reported illness. While Jarrett didn't provide details at the time, he remained confident over the last six days that Arnold would be back in the rotation for the BC series.

"Jamie, good. When you have a setback like that, we're not trying to necessarily pull people back to throw on a certain day of the weekend," Jarrett said Thursday. "We have three competitive starting pitchers and it doesn't really matter who throws when. We felt like that was the best thing...

"It's nice to know that Jamie is doing real well, had a good week and it's nice to clearly know that he's back in the equation for us."

In Arnold's absence, Volini stepped into the Friday role last week. He didn't seem affected whatsoever by being on a day's less rest, throwing a career-high seven innings while allowing just one run with 11 strikeouts to set his ERA entering conference play at 1.16.

Mendes, who moved up a day as well to the Saturday role vs. Lipscomb in Arnold's absence, was also excellent last week, allowing one run on four hits over 5.1 innings with 11 strikeouts of his own. He enters his first ACC start with a 0.89 ERA.

In large part because of the efforts of the starting rotation, which has a 1.06 combined ERA through four weeks, FSU enters ACC play with a 2.68 staff ERA, which ranks fifth nationally.

Jarrett is also preparing for the distinct possibility of having to play a doubleheader vs. BC on Saturday because of another ominous weather forecast for Sunday's scheduled series finale at noon.

"Obviously, the outlook for Sunday is not great so we'll try to finalize the decision on how to manage that day. Do we need to bump up and try to play two games on Saturday? We'll sort that out (Thursday) afternoon," Jarrett said. "It actually looks similar to last weekend where that rough weather rolled in and it was rough last Sunday. It appears to be similar so Boston College is aware of a necessity to possibly get in two on Saturday and we're okay if we need to do that."

On paper, Boston College doesn't seem to be the most formidable opponent to begin conference play. The Eagles enter the weekend with a 7.71 ERA (dead last in the ACC, nearly 2.5 runs higher than any other team) and a .298 batting average (eighth in the ACC) on the season.

However, they are also coming off an impressive road series win at then-No. 9 Virginia, taking two of three games including a 6-3 win in Sunday's rubber match.

So Jarrett knows not to take BC lightly as his team looks to bounce back from its first loss of the season Tuesday night vs. Florida.

"BC is very experienced, probably the oldest, they've got 10 seniors or grads on the pitching staff. Very balanced and they've moved guys around. They've done a nice job finding the right roles for their pitching staff," Jarrett said. "They had a really nice weekend. When you go to Virginia and win a series, that says enough about their capabilities. Todd (Interdonato) does a very nice job instilling his personality and his type of play to the team. A little more action-oriented than some of the teams we've seen, but they do a really good job and our hands are going to be full with this. Hopefully we can get back in rhythm here."

When talking to the media Thursday morning, Jarrett still didn't have an update about midweek starter Evan Chrest after he was pulled early in his start vs. UF due to an apparent forearm injury.

"We're waiting on some more testing on Chrest," Jarrett said. "Hopefully that's not a severe issue, but clearly that put a damper on how that game Tuesday started."

In terms of outfield depth, FSU seems to be trending in a better direction after it has had only three true outfielders available for the last handful of games.

Brody DeLamielleure, who has missed the last nine games, is "back and ready to go" according to Jarrett.

On Chase Williams, who has missed the last seven games after suffering an apparent arm/shoulder injury while sliding into home plate, Jarrett said "We're still a little ways away but trending in a really positive direction."

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