The Friday starter on the Florida State baseball team this year has been an obvious choice all offseason.

But there was much more of a battle between quite a few new and returning arms to fill out the Seminoles' weekend rotation.

Head coach Link Jarrett announced on Thursday, a day before the Seminoles start their 2025 campaign on Feb. 14 vs. James Madison (5 p.m. on ACC Network Extra), that USF transfer Joey Volini and Ole Miss transfer Wes Mendes will fill out the rotation on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, behind returning ace Jamie Arnold in the Friday spot.

These three all have a few things in common. For one, they are all left-handed pitchers. But even more wild than that, all three of them are graduates of Tampa Jesuit High.

"I don't think I've ever seen, in my time, three pitchers from the same high school that all got here in different ways, but have made it into the opening weekend as our starting three," Jarrett said.

This was a distinct possibility dating back to the start of preseason camp and it was something that Arnold alluded to a few weeks ago.

"There’s a good chance that it’s an all-Jesuit rotation, which would be sick," Arnold said. "If that works out it would be awesome."

Arnold enters his junior season with remarkably high expectations placed on him as Baseball America's Preseason Pitcher of the Year. The lefty is coming off a breakout 2024 season in which he was named a First-Team All-American by Perfect Game, ABCA, NCBWA and D1Baseball, putting up a 2.98 ERA with 159 strikeouts over 105.2 innings of work. He was also announced as a team captain for the 2025 season on Thursday alongside junior shortstop Alex Lodise.

Volini returned from Tommy John surgery last year at USF, recording a 4.18 ERA over 23.2 innings. The redshirt junior had a 4.05 career ERA over 40 innings across two seasons with the Bulls.

He made just three starts at USF, largely utilized as a reliever, but inserted himself into the starter conversation this offseason at FSU and eventually won a weekend rotation spot because he was praised as perhaps the most consistent FSU arm this fall and preseason.

"Consistency. Volini have been one of our most consistent. By any metric that we have, he has been very consistent," Jarrett said. "That goes back to we start measuring and evaluating the first workout of the fall and he has been very consistent. He's physical and he was able to navigate and lengthen out comfortably some of his outings."

Mendes transferred to FSU this offseason after spending just one season at Ole Miss. As a true freshman for the Rebels, he didn't have the best stats (8.39 ERA, 15 walks over 24.2 innings) but he has proven to have some great swing-and-miss stuff with 34 strikeouts (12.4 Ks/9) over his 14 appearances at Ole Miss, two of which were starts.

Mendes closed the preseason remarkably strong with a pair of very good consecutive starts the last two weekends to lock down the final spot in the weekend rotation.

"As you watch Mendes and look at the potential, you hope that he can settle in into a starting capacity," Jarrett said. "Physical, the package of secondary pitches is very unique and I haven't seen somebody with that kind of secondary offering across the board with the variety and the level of stuff that he has."

Jarrett didn't go into many specifics when asked about the health of his team entering the regular season. He admitted a few guys are a bit banged up coming out of preseason, but didn't name many names.

The only name he did mention was JUCO transfer Blayden Plain. Plain has been in contention for playing time at first base or a corner outfield spot after hitting .375 with 26 homers and a .509 on-base percentage the last two seasons at Pensacola State College. However, it seems he'll miss at least the first chunk of the season due to an undisclosed injury.

"Blaydon Plain is going to be out for a while. We know that," Jarrett said.

That injury clears the path for true freshman slugger Myles Bailey to be the full-time starter at first base for the Seminoles.

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