Link Jarrett knows as well as anyone that a bump in the road was coming for his Florida State baseball team at some point.

After the Seminoles opened the season 25-4 and rocketed into the top five of the rankings, they've now lost their last three games. They dropped the final two games of the Wake Forest series at home by a combined margin of 29-2 and then lost at Florida on Tuesday to drop the season rivalry series.

It's tied for the longest losing streak by the program over the last two seasons. The 2024 FSU team lost three games in a row once, when it was swept in a weekend series at Clemson.

Jarrett said Thursday before hitting the road for a three-game series at Virginia Tech that he hasn't seen anything in terms of his team's demeanor that has him especially worried.

"The guys are fine. This has been a tough stretch, clearly, but I sense no real out of the ordinary frustration with the group," Jarrett said. "They have been consistent in stretches, clearly, throughout the year, and we've just hit a patch where we haven't been as crisp."

The Seminoles (25-7, 8-4 ACC) certainly don't have time to wallow in their recent struggles. This weekend's series at No. 25 Virginia Tech (23-10, 9-6) continues a furious run of challenging opponents through the remainder of the regular season.

Four of FSU's final six weekend series are against teams currently ranked in D1Baseball's top 25, three of which rank in the top 16. A fifth series is against a Virginia team that, while currently unranked, started the season at No. 2 in the polls and appears to be rounding into form. The sixth series is a cross-country trip to take on Cal.

It begins with a VT team that swept Wake Forest in Winston-Salem two weeks ago before the Deacs took the series over FSU in Tallahassee.

"They've got a couple guys that really run the bases well. Like most good teams, they've got balance in the lineup. You're going to have three or four good left-handed hitters," Jarrett said. "I think their most dangerous guys might be right-handed and those guys also run well. Good variety, they throw a lot of strikes on the pitching side of things. Very good strikeout-to-walk ratio as a staff. Good young left-hander that they've started."

"Our work is cut out and this is what this season will look like from here on out so we have to be on point with everything."

There's been no one reason for FSU's struggles of late. The pitching staff has issued 61 walks and allowed 75 runs over the last seven games (10.7 runs and 8.7 walks per game). The lineup has struggled to come up with the big hit, most notably finishing 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position in Tuesday's 5-4 loss at UF.

While some fans have been feeling ire towards the many things that have been going wrong of late for an FSU team that was one of the final two unbeaten teams this season at 15-0, Jarrett has learned over his many years of experience the importance of what buttons to push and when in terms of messaging to his team during good times as well as slumps.

"I try to find when to really push the button and be very demanding and tough, and then I also recognize when they don't need that. I think controlling the atmosphere of what I feel and what I see is important," Jarrett said. "There's times you need to remind them of some of the really good things they have done. Because when you lose a couple games in a row, it feels like the end of the world, and that's not the case. This thing can flip very quickly, and there's probably a lot of teams in the country that would trade places with where we stand. I don't like how things have gone lately, but you look at moments where maybe you stole a game here or stole a game there, and that counteracts some of the times when things clearly aren't going your way.

"There are times in the length of this when you're playing 70 games, you have to be a little bit more positive and maybe ease up and talk about some of the positive things. And then there are times when things are going really good that I have been very firm. Things were rolling for awhile and I saw glaring deficiencies in what we were doing, but you might have gotten away with it. Some of those lessons right now are very apparent, and in some cases, their eyes are more open and they're more apt to listen, because they now see what we were talking about when we went a long time without losing a game. Managing things, you have to find moments to really press, and then you have to have moments where they they might need a little build-up or something to try to relax them a little bit so they don't continue to try to force and press."

Jarrett provided a mix of some good and some bad injury news while talking to local media members on Thursday.

The good news is that FSU will get outfielder Chase Williams back this weekend after an extended absence. A junior-college transfer ahead of this season, Williams was in contention for an outfield starting spot and has impressive speed that changes the complexion of FSU's offense. However, he suffered an injury sliding head-first into home plate on March 1 after just six games played and 19 at-bats and has missed the last five-plus weeks before his return at VT.

"I know I'm looking forward to Chase having an opportunity to get back onto the field," Jarrett said. "I continue to discuss the dynamic nature of what he does, and that's a huge part of what we thought would help us this year."

In the worse-news category, Jarrett basically confirmed with regard to midweek starter Evan Chrest that his season is over regardless of what decision he makes in terms of a recovery. Chrest had a 2.70 ERA over his first three midweek starts for FSU, all wins for the Seminoles, before he left the second inning of FSU's home matchup vs. Florida with an apparent forearm injury.

"He's got to decide what he wants to do, but I do not see him participating again this year," Jarrett said of Chrest. "Tough, man. You're rolling, things are good, and then that dang Tuesday night at home, you got kind of the buildup of how things have gone. Tough for the kid. Tough."

Additionally, it sounds like left-handed reliever Connor Hults, a key piece of FSU's 2024 bullpen down the stretch, and JUCO transfer Blayden Plain are not especially close to returning for FSU with six weekends left in the regular season.

Join the Osceola for 30 days for free, using promo code Osceola30

No. 9 Florida State at No. 25 Virginia Tech

When: Friday, 6 p.m.; Saturday, 1 p.m.; Sunday, noon

Where: English Field, Blacksburg, Va.

TV: ACC Network Extra (Friday and Sunday only)

Follow The Osceola on Facebook

Follow The Osceola on Twitter

Subscribe to the Osceola's YouTube channel

Subscribe to the Osceola's podcasts on Apple