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FSU Baseball Preview: Noles Face Notre Dame, Louisville in ACC Tournament

By Ty Ragans

Apr 10, 2017; Kansas City, MO, USA; A general view of baseball gloves on the dugout railing prior to a game between the Oakland Athletics and the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 10, 2017; Kansas City, MO, USA; A general view of baseball gloves on the dugout railing prior to a game between the Oakland Athletics and the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports /
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FSU baseball finished the regular season strong with two wins at Louisville. This week the Noles will look to make a run in the ACC tournament.

Many, including myself, doubted that FSU baseball could go up to Louisville last weekend and take a game from the Cardinals. Well, FSU went up to Louisville and took both games, with the finale of the series getting cancelled due to weather.

The two victories mean FSU finished the regular season with a 14-14 record in the ACC. The 14-14 record was good enough to land the Noles the eight seed in the 12 team ACC tournament. The Noles were afforded the luxury of not having to travel to the tournament as it takes place in Louisville just a few days after their series with the Cardinals.

Format

The ACC baseball tournament takes on a slightly different format this season. Teams are grouped into four pods of three teams. Each team will play the other two teams in their pod. The teams with the best record in each pod will advance to a four-team single elimination bracket.

The pool-play will take place Tuesday through Friday with the semi-finals on Saturday and the ACC tournament final taking place on Sunday. As the eight seed, FSU baseball is in a pod with number one Louisville, and number 12 Notre Dame. The Noles will take on Notre Dame on Wednesday at 11:00 AM and then they will face Louisville at 3:00 PM on Friday.

Opponent Preview – Notre Dame

FSU will open up tournament play against the lowest seed in the ACC tournament, Notre Dame. The Irish finished the regular season with an overall record of 26-30 and a conference record of 10-20.

The two teams met already this season when FSU traveled to South Bend back in March and swept the Irish in a three game series. That series was highlighted by a stellar performance from Seminole freshman pitcher Drew Parrish who will face the Irish again on Wednesday. In that series finale Parrish pitched a complete game allowing just three hits, and no earned runs while striking out seven and walking just one on the way to a 5-1 victory for FSU.

As a team, Notre Dame carries a slash line of .248/.337/.365. The Irish have hit just thirty home runs in their 56 games this season. Notre Dame has attempted 70 steals and been successful on 54 of those attempts.

Notre Dame’s best hitter is sophomore outfielder Matt Vierling. Vierling carries a slash line of .329/.399/.554. The sophomore has a team leading seven home runs and 40 RBI on the season.

Senior right hander Brad Bass is likely to take the mound for the Irish. Bass is 3-7 with a 3.92 ERA. The senior has allowed 73 hits in 80.1 innings while striking out 77 and walking 34. Last time against FSU Bass had a line of 7 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 5 K.

Notre Dame has a team fielding percentage of .966. The Irish have committed 72 errors in 56 games.

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Opponent Preview – Louisville

FSU baseball will be familiar with their second tournament opponent as they just wrapped up the regular season with two wins over the Louisville Cardinals. FSU won the first game in a 12-9 slug fest and followed that up the next day with a great performance for an 8-2 victory.

It’s likely that FSU will face left handed pitcher Brendan McKay again who was recently named ACC player of the year as well as being one of three first team All ACC starting pitchers.

McKay is 8-3 on the season with a 2.20 ERA after his start against the Noles. FSU gave McKay fits when they faced him last week. The lefty had trouble with his command and it resulted in a line of 5 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, 6 K’s.

McKay won’t be the only 1st team All-ACC pitcher taking the mound on Friday. FSU will lean on their ace, sophomore lefty Tyler Holton against the Cards. The Noles will be hoping Holton can replicate his last performance against Louisville when he went eight innings, allowed just five hits and one earned run while striking out 11 batters and walking three.

FSU will look to contain Louisville’s top two bats in McKay and Drew Ellis. In the weekend series FSU held the two to just 3-16 at the plate, although Ellis did hit a three run homer in game one.

It will be difficult to beat Louisville for the third time. There is a reason they are the number one seed. However, FSU is playing as well as they have all season and should be confident heading into the matchup, especially with their ace Tyler Holton on the mound.

How to Watch

Both games will be available to stream via the Watch ESPN app or on a Regional Sports Network carrying the game (in Florida, either Sun Sports or FOX Sports Florida). You can catch the radio broadcast for both games on 106.1 FM locally or nation-wide via the FSU Gameday app.

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