On Friday at 7 p.m. ET, 1-seed Tennessee baseball will play in the College World Series against 8-seed Florida State.
In the pivotal first matchup of the two-loss elimination CWS, the Vols will have their hands full with an ACC squad that is also hungry for its first national championship.
To figure out what the Seminoles are bringing to the table, I spoke with Curt Weiler of TheOsceola on Rivals.com.
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Will it be Jamie Arnold on the bump? He’s become a feared name, what’s led to his success?
Weiler: "Jamie (Arnold) has pitched the second game the last two weekends, but he’s the ace of the staff, far and away the most consistent starter and I’d expect they will move him up to Friday this week to face Tennessee. His breakthrough as a sophomore has been pretty remarkable and I think new FSU pitching coach Micah Posey has had a lot to do with it. For one thing, his velocity is up significantly up this year from low 90s to sitting 94-96 and even touching 97. His 3/4 arm slot makes his fastballs tough to square up as they come from a unique angle and the joke on the team is his fastball is kind of three different pitches because of how he can use it in different ways. Add in a wipeout slider, the occasional changeup and very reliable control and you see why he’s got a strong case of being the best pitcher in this year’s College World Series."
It’s a deep group but Cam Smith sitting over .400 is what jumps out. How good has he been and how dangerous is that combined with 28 homers from James Tibbs III?
Weiler: "That 1-2 punch of (Cam) Smith and (James) Tibbs (they actually hit 2 and 3 in the lineup) has been incredibly lethal for FSU this season. Smith had an on-base streak of over 50 games earlier this season and has really broken through this year as a sophomore. He’s an all-field hitter who you can’t really shift at all because he’s just as capable of going to the backside and has quite a few opposite-field home runs this season. Tibbs is probably the leader of this team as a guy who has played his way into first-round draft projections with an ACC Player of the Year junior season. He’s grown each year he’s been at FSU and is just a professional hitter. Has almost as many homers this year (28) as he has strikeouts (31). He didn’t have any extra-base hits in FSU’s first four NCAA Tournament games and exploded for three home runs in the clinching win over UConn to send FSU to Omaha. While these two lead the way, Max Williams has a lot of pop for a leadoff hitter and is very dangerous and Marco Dinges/Jaime Ferrer right behind those two in the lineup make for quite a formidable top five in the order. When the bottom of the lineup is producing like it has been lately, it makes the entire lineup a bear to deal with that often wears down pitching staffs over the course of games."
Tennessee fans won’t be pleased when Link Jarrett is introduced given him taking out UT with Notre Dame in 2022. What’s he been like at FSU in two years?
Weiler: "In some ways, that upset of Tennessee and Notre Dame’s 2022 CWS run was the worst thing that could have happened to Jarrett as he transitioned back to coaching at his alma mater. Because of that deep run and all that has to happen when you take a new job, he missed much of the portal window and didn’t get to build the team too well in his desired image that first offseason. The pitching staff his first season was not nearly deep enough and when they lost their ace to Tommy John, it was too much to overcome, sending the team to its worst season in program history (23-31). An early end last year allowed him to properly build the roster this offseason and that’s exactly what he did, bringing in 26 newcomers and two new assistant coaches. This year’s FSU team has looked much more like we thought it when when he was hired, especially in the areas he works directly with. After FSU didn’t hit for average well and struck out way too much under the prior coach, it is top 10 nationally in batting average this season and strikeouts are way down. Defense was also a problem before Jarrett arrived and FSU has a .979 fielding percentage this season which is on pace to be the best in program history. It took a bit of time but FSU has gotten exactly what it wanted from Jarrett."
Has there been any commonalities in FSU’s losses? What’s been maybe their Achille’s Heal when they do slip up?
Weiler: "No team is exempt from the occasional bad game at the plate where the bats go cold or can’t deliver the big hit. But I would say the most consistent issue in FSU’s struggles this season has been control issues on the mound. It’s been much better of late but FSU is averaging 4.76 walks per nine innings this season. The team lost Friday starter Cam Leiter midway through the season and that took away a major inning-eater and forced everyone to move up a notch in terms of bullpen importance. Largely because of these control issues with too many walks and HBPs at times, FSU blew a pair of big leads in the wrong side of a weekend sweep at Clemson in late March and again at a series loss at Wake Forest in April. Again, most of FSU’s arms have been better on this front lately and seem to be rounding into form at the right time. But a number of injuries before and during the season have limited FSU’s pitching depth and would make coming out of the loser’s bracket in Omaha very challenging for this team."
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