FSU Baseball: Noles Battle Sam Houston State in Super Regional

FSU Baseball, after a roller coaster season, is two wins away from Omaha. The only thing in the Seminoles’ way is a good club from Sam Houston State.

Here we are, it is super regional weekend and FSU baseball is playing at home. Three weeks ago if anyone told me the Noles would be hosting a super regional, I would have had a good laugh. No one is laughing now as the only thing that stands in the way of FSU and the College World Series is the Sam Houston State Bearkats.

The Noles earned their spot in the super regionals by winning four straight elimination games in the Tallahassee regional. The Noles were down to their last strike two different times last weekend but their resiliency allowed them to extend their season.

After four wins in the ACC tournament and a 4-1 record in the regional, FSU now has a record of 43-21, they’ll hope to have their win total to 45 after the weekend.

Opponent Preview

The Sam Houston State Bearkats of the Southland conference will be making their way to Tallahassee to face FSU baseball in super regional play this weekend. This will be the first super regional appearance for SHS. FSU will be making their 16^th super regional appearance, the most in the country.

SHS made it this far by first winning the Southland conference and earning a three seed in the Lubbock, Texas regional. The Bearkats pulled the upset over hosts Texas Tech by coming out of the losers’ bracket to beat the Red Raiders in consecutive games. The atmosphere was intense in Lubbock, just as it is sure to be in Tallahassee this weekend.

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SHS is 44-21 on the season and they boast wins over strong teams such as Texas A&M, Houston, Texas Tech and Arizona. The Kats have a unique offensive approach in the sense they bunt frequently both for hits and sacrifice. SHS will look to put pressure on the defense and force mistakes, it will be important for FSU to keep their composure and make the smart play.

Tyler Holton will start game one and while the bunting can negate his strike out potential, he is a great athlete that fields his position well and that should help with bunt defense. With his recent success it is likely that Drew Parrish will pitch game two for FSU, a third starter if necessary is up in the air.

Sam Houston State isn’t a power hitting team, but they are very good offensively. As mentioned earlier, they put pressure on the defense and find ways to get on base. As a team the Bearkats are slashing .305/.398/.422. The top hitter for SHS is junior outfielder, Bryce Johnson. Johnson has a personal slash line of .350/.456/.437, the leadoff batter is 33-40 on stolen base attempts this season. The top power hitter for SHS is Robie Rojas who is batting .347 with seven home runs and 45 RBI.

The probable starter for SHS in game one is senior right hander, Heath Donica. Donica has a sterling ERA of 1.92 on the season. The Bearkat ace has allowed 80 hits in 108.1 innings and has accumulated 106 strike outs to just 29 walks. SHS has yet to name a starter for game two but my money is on freshman, Hayden Wesneski. The right hander, Wesneski, is 10-2 with a 3.8o ERA and 46 strike outs to 21 walks in 83 innings.

SHS has a team fielding percentage of .970. The Bearkats have committed 77 errors in 65 games.

How to Watch

Both Saturday and Sunday’s games will begin at 12:00 PM. Saturday will be broadcast on ESPN 2 and Sunday’s game will be either ESPN or ESPN2. If a third game is necessary, it will take place on Monday at either 1:00 PM, 4:00 PM, or 7:00 PM on ESPN 2. If the game is optioned to 8:30 PM it will be on ESPN.

The radio broadcast for each game can be found locally on 106.1 FM and nation wide on the FSU Game Day app.

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