FSU Baseball 2018 Weekday Preview: vs. Florida Game 2

Here’s a preview of FSU baseball and their next set of games during the 2018 baseball season.

As the calendar gets closer and closer to the month of April, the FSU baseball team has gotten into the meat of their 2018 schedule with a series of games against teams they will see against deep into the ACC tournament – as well as some they may see in the NCAA tournament and possibly down the road in Omaha.

Now, the Seminoles find themselves in another midweek game with their hated rival desperately looking to break a recent losing streak while hoping to keep their recent success going into what could be the most important conference series of the season just days later inside of Dick Howser Stadium.

Here’s our preview of this week’s game between the Seminoles and the Florida Gators.

The Last Time The ‘Noles Took The Field

The Seminoles took a four game winning streak on the road for a three game series against North Carolina – with the teams playing a double header on Friday due to expected bad weather in the area on Saturday.

In the first game, FSU baseball overcame a five run first inning by the Tar Heels with five runs of their own in the third inning. The Seminoles would be down just one run when UNC dropped seven runs in the seventh inning and cruised to a 16-8 victory. The second game would go to extra innings, with the Noles scoring three runs in the top of the 10^th inning en route to a 6-3 win.

In the rubber match Sunday, the Seminoles again found themselves tied late when a five run eighth inning – including back to back homers from Nick Derr and Jackson Lueck – to give the Seminoles the series with a 9-4 victory as C.J. Van Eyk went four and a third innings of relief to get the victory.

Opponent Preview

The 21-5 Gators come into this midweek game as winners of nine of their last 11 games, including two out of three last weekend against Arkansas. After dropping the opener on Friday, Florida dropped 17 runs on the Razorbacks on Saturday before edging out a 5-4 victory on Sunday afternoon.

As a team, the Gators are batting .292 on the season with Jonathan India leading the way with a .429 average through the first 26 games. The pitching staff has an ERA just over three runs a game and opponents are batting just .226 against them this season.

Interesting Fact

By now, the secret is out that FSU baseball has had troubles of late with their rivals, including losses in 10 of the last 11 meetings between the teams. However, one positive from this week’s game is it is being played in Jacksonville – where the Seminoles hold a 6-5 advantage since the teams began playing there in the 2007 season.

All time, the Seminoles hold an 11-9 lead in games not played in Tallahassee or Gainesville – including a seven game winning streak form 2008 to 2011 that included wins in Jacksonville, Tampa and at the College World Series.