FSU baseball completes sweep of Western Carolina. Our takeaways from the Seminoles weekend

Florida State baseball is off to a 6-0 start for the second straight season following a three-game series sweep of Western Carolina.

The Seminoles outscored the Catamounts 36-13 for the weekend to keep their perfect start going, including a 20-7 victory Sunday. It marked the first 20-run game for the program since a 24-4 win over Niagara on Feb. 15, 2020.

Last season in the first year under head coach Link Jarrett, FSU also got off to a similar start but saw its season derailed due to injuries and performance the rest of the season.

Jarrett flipped the roster this offseason, bringing in 36 new players between transfers and the freshmen class. He is hopeful the team can escape a potential swoon this season.

Starting centerfielder and leadoff hitter DeAmez Ross missed Sunday's contest due to a hamstring injury, but Jarrett said he doesn't believe it will be a long-term issue.

"The message is to come out and play one good inning of baseball and make one good pitch at a time and the rest takes care of itself," Jarrett said postgame Sunday.

"I couldn't have told you the record last year. It's about the game, one pitch at a time, one inning at a time."

Here are our takeaways from the weekend.

Tallahassee natives star for FSU baseball

The two Tallahassee natives on FSU's roster had themselves a big weekend.

Second baseman Drew Faurot was 3-for-4 with four RBI, two runs scored, a double and a stolen base. Faurot hit .727 (8-for-11) for the weekend with four doubles, one triple, one home run, six runs scored and seven RBI. The former Florida High standout drew two walks and added two sacrifice flies.

Faurot, a UCF transfer, hit his first home run as a Seminole on Friday and enjoyed the curtain call afterward. It was a two-run shot to open up the game for FSU in the sixth inning.

"Oh, it was awesome," Faurot said of the curtain call. "I kind of just blacked out. There's something that you can only wish for that to happen. And yeah, it was pretty cool."

Faurot - whose father Adam played at FSU - is hitting .538 for the season through six games and 26 at-bats. He has the home run, four doubles, a triple, seven RBI and is 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts.

"I think he's handled some fastballs and I think he's also handled some decent secondary pitches," Jarrett said of Faurot.

"He's handled a lot of different things from both sides of the plate. He's athletic and when he gets going, he can run. So that's been awesome."

Catcher Jaxson West, who is a transfer from Alabama, started the Saturday and Sunday contests behind the dish. He went 4-for-6 for the weekend with a double, triple, two walks and also drove in three runs.

West picked up an RBI triple Saturday, driving in Faurot in the fifth inning. In the next frame, he drove in Faurot again on a double.

"It was awesome," Faurot said of West driving him in twice. "We played travel ball from six years old. ... It's funny how our paths crossed again and that was cool to me, it was awesome."

Cam Leiter and Jamie Arnold follow up strong starts

Cam Leiter again set the tone for FSU with a strong showing in Friday's opener.

Leiter pitched five innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits while striking out eight and walking three. Of his eight strikeouts, seven came looking on a breaking ball, while another was a swinging strikeout on the breaker. The pitch was nearly un-hittable.

Through two starts, Leiter's ERA sits at 0.90 and he has 21 strikeouts and five walks in 10 innings.

Jamie Arnold picked up where he left off as well, throwing six shutout innings Saturday, allowing just one hit, while striking out 11 and walking two.

Through two starts, the left-hander has a perfect ERA in 11 innings, allowing just three hits. He has 20 strikeouts and two walks.

"I love it. I love when you get to play defense behind guys who are into it, show emotion like that, and are good," Faurot said. "I think they put in all the good work and it's fun to play defense for those guys."

Conner Whittaker was scheduled to open the season as FSU's Sunday pitcher, but due to a rainout on the first Saturday of the season, Arnold's start was bumped to Sunday. Whittaker started Tuesday against Jacksonville and Jarrett said he has not yet determined if he will continue to start on weekdays or move back to the weekend.

As a result, Florida transfer Yoel Tejada made his FSU debut. It did not last long.

Tejada - a 6-foot-8 transfer sophomore - lasted just three hitters, as he threw 12 straight balls, walking all three hitters he faced.

Noah Short finished out the first inning, working out of a bases-loaded, zero-out jam, allowing just two runs.

Matt Sauser (three innings), Andrew Armstrong (one), Brady Louke (two), John Abraham (one) and Connor Hults (one) combined for the rest of the eight innings of work to prevent FSU from using other high-leverage innings.

"Tejada had been clearly sharper than that leading up," Jarrett said. "He didn't have it, he couldn't make the adjustments."

"It was important that Noah went out. ... To get that punchout and hold them, I think they scored two runs, that could have gotten away from us so it was good to see Noah [get out of it]."

Offense continues to roll on

James Tibbs’ two home runs tied a career-high and was the second multi-home run game of his career.

Two of his three home runs this year are grand slams. Tibbs' home run broke open the game, allowing FSU to jump ahead 11-2, also easing the pitching decisions for Jarrett.

"It's elite bat skill," Jarrett said. "The grand slam was a moment that kind of kicked it in a little bit and then the home run he had later was probably actually hit better."

The Seminoles early this season have done a good job of setting the tone in games offensively. They have scored first-inning runs in five of the six games, with Saturday's game being the lone one they did not. FSU has scored eight first-inning runs this season.

FSU has 16 hits from 10 different batters.

"Whether the stuff is in the zone or not, you still have to have the ability and the discipline to take some tough pitches," Jarrett said. "We did that and we were able to grab the momentum and the lead there in the first. That continued the whole game. I was pleased with the at-bats."

Cam Smith singled in his final at-bat, extending his hitting streak to a career-high 10 games.

Look ahead to USF Tuesday matchup

The Seminoles will look to push their win streak to seven games with a Tuesday matchup against South Florida (4-2) at Dick Howser.

The Bulls are coming off a four-game series sweep of Marist College at USF Baseball Stadium in Tampa.

USF outscored the Red Foxes 49-6 over the four games played over three days.

Rafael Betancourt leads the team with a .474 batting average and 1.284 OPS. He has one home run, a double and seven RBI, while John Montes (.421) and Jackson Mayo (.409) each have batting averages over .400.

Like the Seminoles, the Bulls like to run the bases, with a success rate of 81% (13-of-16) in stolen bases this season.

How to watch FSU baseball vs. USF

Who: Florida State (6-0) vs. South Florida (4-2)

When/Where: 5 p.m., Dick Howser Stadium

TV/Radio: ACC Network Extra/100.7 FM

Reach Ehsan Kassim at ekassim@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Ehsan_Kassim. You can also follow our coverage on Facebook (NoleSports), Instagram (tlhnolesports) and YouTube channel (NoleSportsTD).

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Drew Faurot, Cam Leiter, James Tibbs carry FSU baseball to sweep of WCU