First-Year Players on FSU Baseball Team Quickly Coming Into Their Own

Coming into the 2015 FSU baseball season, expectations for the team were mediocre at best. Although DJ Stewart is an undeniable All-American level slugger, the concern was that opposing teams could simply pitch around Stewart every time he came to bat and deal with the multiple freshman and first-year Seminole players who surround Stewart both in the lineup and the pitching staff. However, this team has already exceeded many expectations, currently sitting at 26-8 on the season with wins over UCF, Florida, NC State, and Virginia, and the No. 8 ‘Noles are very much in the running for a national seed in postseason play. Although Stewart has more than done his share to keep Florida State competitive with 9 home runs, 30 RBIs, and 43 walks, the most of any player in the nation, this team is exceeding expectations largely because of the bats and arms of the players who are in their first years as Seminoles, either as freshmen or transfer students.

First-Year Pitchers

On the pitching staff, 2 of the 3 weekend starters at the beginning of the season were first-year players, with Boomer Biegalski, a sophomore transfer from the College of Central Florida throwing on Saturdays and Cobi Johnson, the freshman out of Holiday, Florida, pitching the Sunday games. However, Mike Compton, the veteran of the FSU pitching staff, went down with an injury weeks ago and has yet to return to the rotation. In his absence, Biegalski has pitched Fridays, true freshman Drew Carlton has moved into the Saturday spot, and Johnson has continued to pitch Sundays. Since this rotation has been in effect, Florida State has not lost a weekend series, with series wins over Wake Forest, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and NC State.

Boomer Biegalski

Biegalski has come into his own and looks like the ace of this staff with a team-high 59.0 innings pitched and a 2-2 record with a 3.05 ERA. Despite being a changeup pitcher whose fastball doesn’t even touch 90 miles per hour, Biegalski uses the offspeed well, racking up 62 strikeouts so far this season, averaging over 1 per inning. Considering Biegalski has shown resiliency, poise, and focus that is not normally seen in a player who is in his first year at the highest collegiate level, it is quite possible that he will remain the Friday starter even after Mike Compton’s return from injury.

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Cobi Johnson

Johnson has looked the most like a prototypical freshman out of all the first-year pitchers. At times, his stuff has looked quite good, such as against Oakland University of Michigan in his first career start when he threw 5 innings of 2-hit, shutout baseball and fanned 6 batters. However, more often than that, Johnson has struggled early in games, allowing at least 1 run in the first 2 innings of his last 7 starts. He has also struggled a bit with rebounding from mistakes and has let 1 run turn into many more.

Once he is able to get past the first few innings, Johnson has been able to get into his groove and look like a very good pitcher. On the season, Johnson is 3-2 with a 6.06 ERA. Regardless of his current faults, it is clear that the potential is there for Johnson and he only needs to improve on consistency and starting games well.

Drew Carlton

Carlton, the new addition to the weekend rotation, has made the most of his opportunity, making 3 weekend starts since Compton’s injury and going 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA. Most recently, Carlton shut down the potent NC State Wolfpack, throwing 8 shutout innings in a 1-0 Florida State win. Before Compton’s injury, Carlton was an occasional mid-week starter as well as a long reliever. On the season, Carlton has a 2-1 record with a 4.01 ERA. If he is able to continue his success in the weekend rotation, it is a possibility that Carlton will replace Johnson as the Sunday starter when Compton returns.

Taylor Folsom

Although not in the starting lineup, Taylor Folsom, a true freshman from Doerun, Georgia, has made a good impression on the FSU coaching staff in his bullpen appearances. On the season, Folsom has made 12 relief appearances, going 2-0 with a 3.55 record and 12.2 innings pitched. His 12 bullpen appearances is tied for second most on the Florida State roster, behind only FSU closer Billy Strode, who has made 16. Going forward, it seems that Folsom will continue to be a regular contributor from the bullpen.

First-Year Batters

Taylor Walls

It took a few weeks for head coach Mike Martin to figure out exactly how he wanted to set the day-to-day batting order for the Seminoles. After a few weeks of bouncing around in the lower half of the lineup, Martin decided to give freshman shortstop Taylor Walls a chance as the lead-off man and Walls has made the most of it and seems to have earned the permanent #1 spot in the lineup.

As a lead-off man, Walls has done exactly what a manager wants the #1 guy to do; he draws a lot of walks. In fact, he has drawn 37 walks on the season, good for 2nd-most in the nation behind only FSU’s Stewart. On top of his plate discipline, Walls has come into his own in the field as well. Early in the year, Walls had multiple errors and had apparent issues adjusting to the position at the collegiate level. However, since ACC play started, Walls has really turned a corner defensively, committing far less errors as well as making some awe-inspiring plays in the field.

Dylan Busby

Busby, a true freshman out of Sarasota, Florida, has earned his spot as the starting third baseman with his versatile hitting ability. On the season, Busby is batting .289 with 5 homers and a team-high 31 RBIs. He also had 9 doubles, second-most on the team behind John Sansone. He has had additional success swiping bases as he is 7-7 on stolen base attempts this season. Busby has some improvements he can make defensively, as he has the worst fielding percentage on the team at .873. Regardless of his sometimes inconsistent defense, Busby will not be departing the starting lineup any time soon, as long as he is able to continue hitting at his current pace.

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Darren Miller

Miller, yet another true freshman, is not an especially powerful hitter with just 1 home run and 13 RBIs on the season. However, Miller is the type of batter who can keep at-bats alive by fouling off tough pitches before getting the pitch he was waiting for and delivering a hit. Due to his ability to keep at-bats going, among other things, Miller is tied for the team lead in batting average among the Seminoles who get regular at-bats, batting .315 on the season. He has spent most of the season playing first base and has done a good job at a tough position, committing few errors despite regularly being involved in plays.

Quincy Nieporte

Nieporte, a sophomore in his first year at FSU after spending 1 season on the TCC Baseball team, struggled early in the season with a batting average that sat under .200 for the first month of the season. However, Nieporte, who many thought would be a power hitter for the ‘Noles, had his coming-out party on March 11th when the Seminoles hosted UCF. In that game, Nieporte went 4-4 with 2 home runs, 3 runs, and an incredible 7 RBIs. Since that point, Nieporte has been a different player, inserting himself into the every-day lineup as a consistent hitter with runners on base, now with 25 RBIs. His batting average has also improved greatly, now sitting at .315, tied with Darren Miller for the best average on the team. This past weekend, Nieporte had an RBI in all 3 games against NC State, including knocking in the sole run in Friday’s 1-0 win.

Although there was a slight learning curve for many of the aforementioned first-year Florida State players, all of them are now adjusting to the college game and coming into their own. The silver lining that many FSU Baseball fans had at the beginning of this season was that all of the freshmen gaining experience this year would improve the team greatly in future years. However, it is quite possible if these first-year players continue to improve at this alarming rate, the future that most thought was a few years away may in fact be now.

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