Florida State baseball heads to Louisville for final series of season | 3 things to know
Florida State and first-year coach Link Jarrett close the 2023 baseball season at Louisville.
It has been a long, frustrating year for the Seminoles, but they do have the opportunity to finish on a positive note.
Here are three things to know about FSU's three-game ACC series against the Cardinals starting Thursday.
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Learning from the finish
While FSU is officially out of ACC Tournament contention, there is still much to gain from its final three games.
After a pair of losses to top-ranked Wake Forest last weekend, the Seminoles rallied late on a walk-off single from Jordan Williams to pull off the upset Sunday. Prior to Sunday's game, Williams had only three hits the entire season. His game-winning at-bat not only snapped a 14-game drought but was his first at Howser.
The momentum continued into Tuesday's game against Kennesaw State as Williams went 2-for-2, scoring a run in the Seminoles' 7-3 victory over the Owls. The outing against Kennesaw State was another come-from-behind win as FSU went down 2-0 early before scoring five combined runs in the fifth and sixth innings.
When asked about what the Seminoles can gain out of winning in the final week of play, Jarrett said that this is a young group that "needs to play" due to its youth. The Seminoles boast a combined 27 freshmen and sophomores this season.
Breaking out on the mound
The Seminoles really haven't leaned heavily on two or three pitchers this season, but have thrown out a plethora of arms. Against Kennesaw State, FSU went through four different pitchers over nine innings, seeing Ryan Denison pick up the win and Doug Kirkland pick up the save.
Kirkland has seen the most action as of late, pitching in four of the last five games. His best outing was in a 6-4 win over Jacksonville, where he allowed one hit on one run, and struck out three over three innings. Against the Owls, he allowed one hit, and one walk, and struck out three over an inning.
Jamie Arnold is also coming off a strong showing this weekend. In the final game of the series against Wake Forest, he allowed three runs on five hits and struck out six over five innings. This final series could be a big one for the young pitchers gaining confidence going into the offseason.
Playing spoiler
While the Seminoles will miss the postseason, Louisville is very much in it. The Cardinals are only one game behind Pittsburgh, which owns the final spot with a 10-15 record. The Panthers face a strong NC State squad this weekend, so the window of opportunity is a little more open for Louisville.
However, the Cardinals are struggling to win late in the season. They've lost seven straight, dropping a pair of conference series to Clemson and Virginia. If Louisville wants to make it to Durham it will ideally need to take two games from FSU and need NC State to win its series against Pittsburgh.
When it's come to series against the bottom of the conference standings, FSU has been hit or miss this season. It did beat Pittsburgh, 2-1, this year, but only took one game from Notre Dame and Virginia Tech.
However, the Seminoles have won six of their last eight and have had a better late-season stretch than a handful of teams around them in the standings. First pitch is on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Patterson Stadium. Game one will be broadcast on ACC Network, but games two and three will be on ACC Network Extra. All games will be available on 100.7 FM.
Jack Williams covers Florida State athletics for Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at jwilliams@tallahassee.com or on Twitter @jackgwilliams.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Here are 3 things to know before Florida State baseball's series against Louisville
