Pregame notes, live updates: FSU opens College World Series vs. Tennessee
For the first time in five years, it's a Florida State baseball gameday at the College World Series.
The Seminoles (47-15) begin their 24th CWS appearance in program history (third-most of any team) Friday night at 7 p.m. (ESPN) when they take on No. 1 overall seed Tennessee (55-12) at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb.
It's FSU's first trip here since 2019 and the first under second-year head coach Link Jarrett. However, Jarrett made three appearances here as an FSU player in the early 1990s and also led Notre Dame here in 2022 as head coach of the Irish.
FSU is 9-14 all-time in CWS openers and has won just two of its last nine opening games in Omaha dating back to 1996. However, it did win its opening game the last time here 1-0 vs. Arkansas and Jarrett also won his opening game here with ND in 2022, beating Texas 7-3.
On the other hand, it's the Volunteers third trip to Omaha in the last four years under head coach Tony Vitello. They lost their opening game of the CWS each of the last two trips.
FSU is expected to turn to sophomore ace Jamie Arnold (11-3, 2.77 ERA) to start its first game in Omaha. The left-handed pitcher has the best ERA of any starting pitcher in this year's CWS and has 155 strikeouts to 22 walks over his 100.2 innings this season. He'll have his hands full against a Tennessee offense that has hit 173 home runs this season (second most by any team in NCAA history), but he's handled some very talented offenses pretty well this season.
Culmination of Jamie Arnold's sophomore surge set for Friday night in Omaha
Tennessee is taking a different pitching approach, electing to use an opener of sorts in redshirt senior righty Chris Stamos (3-0, 4.02 ERA). In two NCAA Tournament starts as an opener for the Volunteers vs. Northern Kentucky and Evansville, Stamos has allowed three runs on four hits over 1.2 innings. After his brief start that isn't expected to last past a few innings, Tennessee is expected to turn to junior RHP AJ Causey (13-3, 3.77 ERA), who has 117 strikeouts to 19 walks over 86 innings this season. He's thrown seven innings five times this season so he may pitch the rest of the way if FSU is struggling against him.
I'm here on the scene at Omaha and will be throughout FSU's CWS run. I'll have updates leading up to Friday's game as well as once it gets underway in our game thread on the Osceola Village.