FSU baseball: Takeaways from series win over Virginia Tech

The FSU baseball series against Virginia Tech couldn’t have started any worse Friday afternoon.

The Noles were down early but battled back from an early deficit to win game one and game three to clinch their second consecutive ACC conference series.

It wasn’t the prettiest all the time, but the team will take wins by any means necessary at this point.

The series win moves the Noles to (6-6, 4-5 ACC) with a showdown against the rival Florida Gators Tuesday night.

Takeaways From Virginia Tech Series

• FSU pitching has found itself
• FSU defense was awful
• FSU hitters showed some signs of life

FSU pitchers gave up 11 earned runs in the series, with three of them coming in the bottom of the ninth inning of the third game, with FSU holding a 14-3 lead. They had 34 strikeouts against 10 walks and were not helped by their defense much at all. FSU pitchers got out of some jams throughout the series, but hopefully, they won’t make a habit of doing that.

Speaking of defense, the Noles committed eight errors in the three-game series after playing better defense against Virginia last week. That has to improve if the Noles plan to win many games in 2021.

FSU hitters struggled for much of the series, striking 10 times through the first five innings of game one. They struck out 15, 10, and 7 times, so those gradually went down as the series went on and exploded for 18 hits in the rubber game.

The FSU offense totaled six home runs which is their best showing of power in the young season.

Mike Martin Jr.’s move to insert Parker Messick into the designated hitter spot in game three paid off as he homered in his first career at-bat and finished with three hits on the day.

Messick said it was the first time he’s seen live pitching since high school, which makes his performance even more impressive.

I think FSU pitching will be fine for the most part, but it’s the defense and inconsistency of the offense that needs to find consistency for this team to be any good this year. However, winning two consecutive ACC series after getting swept in the opener is a start.