FSU Baseball Preview: Noles Travel South to Take on Miami
By Ty Ragans
FSU baseball has had their struggles in 2017 – Miami’s have been even worse. The two meet this weekend in a series that both teams will be desperate to win.
FSU baseball is an elite program in the college baseball world; the same can be said for Miami. However, neither team has lived up to their program’s reputation in 2017. FSU fans are certainly not happy with the Noles season to date, no one expected FSU to be just 24-15 overall and 9-9 in the ACC at this point in the season.
Look on the bright side though, Nole fans. It could be worse, you could be Miami. The Hurricanes enter the series against FSU with an 18-19 overall record. Their ACC record is the same as FSU at 9-9. Miami is currently an abysmal number 68 in RPI while FSU has worked their way up to number 29. Neither team is ranked in a major poll.
Last Time Out
Last time the Noles took the field they put up a solid performance in a 7-3 victory over Stetson University. The Noles played well in all facets of the game as they scored seven runs on seven hits and didn’t commit an error.
It was the long ball that did the trick at the plate. FSU scored four of their seven runs via the homer, two from Dylan Busby and one from Cal Raleigh. Taylor Walls continued to improve on his season by going 3-5 at the plate.
Starting pitcher Will Zirzow was solid in his 4.1 innings of work. Clayton Kwiatkowski got his first victory as a Nole in 3.2 strong innings and Chase Haney closed it out with a scoreless ninth inning.
Opponent Preview
As mentioned above, Miami comes into this series with a record of 18-19. Chop Chat’s own Jason Parker wrote about it earlier this week – this rivalry series is a must win for both teams. The post season hopes of Miami are dangling by a thread, while FSU baseball cannot afford to slip or they may find themselves at home this post season as well.
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A lot of Miami’s struggles have come from the fact that they are a bad offensive team. As a team, Miami has an overall batting average of just .214. Yuck. The Hurricanes have a team on base percentage of .332 and they have hit just 17 home runs in 37 games.
Miami’s defensive play has been on par with FSU’s. The Canes carry a team fielding percentage of .967 while the Noles have a fielding percentage of .966.
Miami does not have a player batting over .300. The Canes best hitter has been junior outfielder Carl Chester who carries a slash line of .273/.363/.381 with three homers and 22 RBI.
On Friday Miami’s starting pitcher will be junior southpaw, Jeb Bargfeldt. On the season Bargfeldt is 4-2 with an ERA of 1.69. Bargfeldt has 43 strike outs to 21 walks in 48 innings pitched.
On Saturday the Canes will roll with another lefty, Michael Mediavilla. The junior is 4-4 on the season with a 4.23 ERA and 37 strike outs to 24 walks in 44.2 innings.
FSU will finally face a right handed pitcher on Sunday when freshman Gregory Veliz takes the hill for Miami. On the season, Veliz is 3-2 with a 2.41 ERA; the freshman has recorded 39 strike outs to 18 walks in 39.1 innings.
As you can see, Miami pitchers are prone to allowing walks. This bodes well for FSU’s patient approach at the plate.
Full statistics for Miami’s season can be found here.
How To Watch
All three games can be streamed on ACC Network Extra. The radio broadcast can be found locally on 106.1 FM or nation wide on the FSU Game Day app. Friday and Saturday will be 7:00 starts while Sunday’s first pitch is scheduled for 1:00.