FSU Baseball 2018 Weekday Preview: vs. Florida Game 3

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

For the first 15 innings this past weekend in Atlanta, the FSU baseball team looked like they were going to be in a position to increase their hold on the ACC and a top ranking nationally. 12 innings later, the Seminoles dropped their second series of the season and looked like a team who has plenty of questions heading into a 16 game stretch that will make or break their season.

While the Noles welcome the leaders of the ACC’s Coastal Division this weekend to Tallahassee, the action starts this week with the final meeting of the regular season with their hated foes from Gainesville – a team the Seminoles seem to be able to beat everywhere else but the baseball diamond of late.

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

The Last Time The ‘Noles Took The Field

FSU baseball hit the road for three games this weekend against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, starting off Saturday night with a hitting display that included homers by Jackson Leuck and Nick Derr as the Seminoles scored four runs each in the fourth and ninth innings to cruise for a 10-2 victory.

On Saturday, a pitchers duel broke out as the Seminoles tied the game at one in the sixth inning before the Yellow Jackets drove home the winning run with a fielders choice one inning later to get the 2-1 victory. Sunday saw a 2-1 lead by Georgia Tech escalate quickly as the Yellow Jackets scored 14 runs over a three-inning span for the 16-3 victory and a series win, continuing FSU baseball’s slump in Atlanta.

Opponent Preview

Right now, as much as we hate to say it, the Florida Gators are playing some of the hottest baseball in all of the college game. The men from Gainesville have won 10 in a row, which includes a sweep last weekend of Tennessee on the road as well as a sweep of power program Vanderbilt and a win over the Seminoles in Jacksonville late last month.

As a team, Florida is batting .294 on the season with the story being Jonathan India and his batting average over .430 at this point in the year. On the mound, the Gators have a combined ERA at 2.95 on the season while opponents are batting just .223 against them.

Next: When will Mike Martin break all-time wins record?

Interesting Fact

By now, the story has been told way too many times about the recent struggles against the Gators on the diamond. FSU baseball has been swept by their rivals three of the last four regular seasons and has lost 12 of their last 13 games between the two teams. Since the rivalry went to three separate games, the Seminoles have a 6-9 record against Florida in Tallahassee.