FSU Baseball Looks to Overcome Recent Slump With Midweek Battle vs. JU
By Ty Ragans
FSU baseball had a spring break road trip that saw them go 1-4 on the week – now, the Noles return home to host the Dolphins of Jacksonville University.
It was a humbling road trip that saw FSU baseball lose four out of five games to drop to 14-7 on the season and 3-3 in the ACC – and has many wondering how the Noles will respond. The disappointing results for the week were amplified by a 17-0 loss to Virginia Tech on Sunday. The 1-4 week saw FSU tumble from number 1 to number 13 in d1baseball.com’s latest poll.
There comes a time in a long baseball season where a team must have a gut-check type of moment. It’s better to have that moment in March rather than later in the season. I would say the gut-check moment for FSU is right now. The attempt to right the ship starts on Tuesday as the Noles host Jacksonville University.
Previous Meeting
The Jacksonville University Dolphins are a familiar foe for FSU baseball. The two teams have already met once before this season on February 28th when the Noles rallied from behind for a 6-5 victory in Jacksonville.
The February meeting between these two teams was a back and forth exchange with JU taking the lead on two different occasions just to see FSU baseball come back and clinch the victory. FSU pitcher Andrew Karp had a shaky start to his outing against JU but settled in and finished well for a line of 6 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K’s. Karp will look to replicate the latter part of that start when he faces JU on Tuesday.
Three different FSU players had multi-hit games in the first meeting with JU. Jackson Lueck was 2-3 with a run scored and an RBI, Nick Derr was 2-4 with a run scored, and Cal Raleigh was 2-4 with a solo home run.
The JU baseball team had to be kicking themselves following the first meeting between the two teams. JU took a two run lead into the 8th inning where three costly errors allowed FSU to score three runs that would eventually lead to victory. You can bet JU will be looking to atone for a game that they surely feel they let slip away.
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Preview
Since the original meeting between these two clubs, three weeks ago, FSU has gone 8-5 while JU is 6-8 since then. The Dolphins come into the second match up with an overall season record of 11-11 with a 2-3 record on the road.
As a team JU comes into the second meeting with a .245 batting average and a .361 on base percentage. For comparisons sake, FSU is hitting .263 as a team with an OBP of .413. Jacksonville has had trouble generating any power this season as they have just three home runs through 22 games.
Senior outfielder Nathan Koslowski is far and away the Dolphin’s most productive hitter on the season. Through 91 at bats Koslowski is batting .374 with a .457 on base percentage. Koslowski made his presence felt in the last game between the two clubs going 2-3 with a run scored and three RBI on the night.
The pitching has been solid for JU on the season as the Dolphins enter the match up with a team ERA of 3.40 and opponents are batting just .235 against the Jacksonville pitching staff. FSU can expect to face off against a number of arms in the mid-week matchup as JU’s midweek starters rarely go past four innings.
FSU will look to get the bats going early and hope to have solid work from the bullpen if needed. Inconsistency on offense and shaky bullpen pitching are the main reasons FSU finds themselves at a cross roads.
How to Watch
Tuesday’s first pitch is scheduled for 6 PM and the game can be streamed on ACC Network Extra. As always you can listen to the game locally on 106.1 FM or you can stream the radio broadcast from anywhere via the FSU Game Day App.