2/12/2023 baseball Edit

Newcomers impress in FSU baseball Fan Day scrimmage

Curt Weiler • TheOsceola

Senior Writer

Florida State baseball Fan Day always means that the season is right around the corner.

The Seminoles held their annual scrimmage and autograph session day for the fans Sunday afternoon, five days out from Link Jarrett's first official game coaching at his alma mater on Feb. 17 vs. James Madison.

The game provided a preview look for fans of what this year's squad will look like. The nature of the scrimmage so close to the start of the season meant that none of FSU's likely starting pitchers were scheduled to throw.

Still, the scrimmage provided quite a bit of insight, far beyond the 7-5 final score which saw the Garnet team rally to beat Gold at Dick Howser Stadium.

While much of the hype around the lineup entering the season surrounds returning players like Jaime Ferrer and James Tibbs, it was a number of newcomers who stole the show Sunday.

Of the nine hits over the 7.5-inning scrimmage, five came from new Seminoles. Freshman Gunnett Carlson was 2 for 3 with a pair of doubles and two runs batted in. Arkansas transfer Jude Putz, who was recently deemed eligible this season by the NCAA despite transferring to FSU this spring, had a triple to right field, which plated a run and brought in another RBI on a fielder's choice.

Highly-touted freshman third baseman Cam Smith also got on base with a single to center field in his first at-bat of the game.

In his unofficial return to FSU, Nander De Sedas started at second for the Gold team and was 0 for 1 but worked a pair of walks and turned those into a pair of runs.

On the mound, Ben Barrett, who is in contention for the midweek starting spot, had the longest outing of the game. He threw four innings in relief for Garnet and impressed while doing so, allowing one run on three hits with no walks and two strikeouts.

Jarrett and his staff regularly challenged the FSU pitching staff during the scrimmage, putting the pitchers into quite a few simulated jams where they inherited runners on first and second with no outs.

Barrett handled one of these scenarios exceptionally in the fourth inning, getting a quick strikeout and then a 6-4-3 double play to escape easily.

Andrew Armstrong was another player who impressed in adversity Sunday, allowing one unearned run on one hit over two innings of work. He issued two walks but also had two strikeouts, escaping from an inherited jam with a strikeout-double play combo just like Barrett.

A few other pitchers didn't handle the adversity as well. Doug Kirkland, who is in contention for the closer spot as he returns from Tommy John surgery, struggled. While Kirkland has impressed this preseason, he allowed six runs, two earned, on one hit with a pair of walks and a pair of wild pitches.

He was hindered by a pair of errors, of which there were three in the game, all committed by the Gold team. Two of those were in the final few innings as more substitutions began to be made.