The Florida State baseball team entered ACC Tournament viewed as a team just on the outside fringe of earning a top-eight overall national seed in the NCAA Tournament.
A 2-0 run through pool play with wins over Georgia Tech and No. 4 seed Virginia so far this week in Charlotte has given FSU's postseason resume a spot in the arm It also allows FSU to advance into the ACC Semifinals where it will face Wake Forest on Saturday at 1 p.m. (ACC Network).
After Friday's 12-7 win over UVA, FSU head coach Link Jarrett was given a chance to campaign for his team when he was asked if he believes FSU has done enough already to earn a top-8 overall seed, which would allow FSU's entire path to Omaha to go through home games at Dick Howser Stadium.
Although FSU will have a further chance to boost its resume Saturday, Jarrett was pretty adamant that his team has already done enough.
"Absolutely. People that schedule in the middle of the week, I would encourage anyone that has any questions about this to roll down there through some of those Tuesdays that we have. Three of them with the Gators, Stetson twice and Mercer and JU three times and (FGCU). It just keeps coming at you. There's no breathing room. It's not easy," Jarrett said. "That taxes your team and your bullpen because when you come out of a series like this on Sunday and you look at what you're dealing with on Tuesday and there's 15,000 people waiting on you in these rivalry games, you have to deliver. And then you go right back into these environments of playing the Clemsons and the Virginias and the ACC teams. It's not easy.
"To be in that conversation, you need to have done that from the start of the season to this point. These guys have done that. Those games are challenging and difficult and when you stack them with the demand to win this league, few people can understand what that's like to have to manage those midweeks mixed with this. These guys have done more than that."
But what do college baseball's national analysts think of the Seminoles' case? FSU began the week as the No. 9 overall seed according to D1Baseball and the No. 11 overall seed by Baseball America.
Georgia began the week as the No. 8 overall seed in both projections, but went 0-1 in the SEC Tournament to open the door for the Seminoles and others.
Now entering Saturday, that has flipped in both projections. D1Baseball has moved FSU up to the No. 8 overall seed in its updated field of 64, dropping Georgia to No. 9 overall.
Here's what D1 writer Aaron Fitt said in his ACC Tournament Friday recap story: "Now it feels like a coin toss between FSU and Georgia for the final top-eight spot — the Seminoles might already have the edge, since they went 2-0 in pool play to improve to 19-12 aggregate in the ACC, while Georgia went 0-1 in Hoover to fall to 17-14 aggregate in the SEC. But the Bulldogs are still two spots higher in the RPI and have a much better record against Q1 (13-10 compared with FSU’s 8-7) and Q1 & Q2 combined (21-13 vs. FSU’s 15-12) — which is why it feels like a toss-up. Maybe FSU would get the nod even if it loses Saturday, but a win Saturday to reach the ACC title game would surely sew up a top-eight."
Baseball America has also moved FSU up to No. 8 overall ahead of No. 9 seed Georgia in its Saturday morning update.
BA national writer Teddy Cahill said in the story, "After the Seminoles on Friday beat Virginia to advance to the ACC Tournament semifinals, it moves past Georgia for the last top-eight seed. And it will probably stick there. The other competitors for that spot are done and Florida State now ranks eighth in RPI."
These projections are well-informed, but aren't getting any real insight from people on the selection committee. So while FSU seems to be in a good place, it would be advisable for the Seminoles to beat the Demon Deacons today as it seems that could really lock FSU into a top-eight seed.
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