FSU baseball: Takeaways from ‘Noles 2021 regular season

FSU baseball (29-21, 20-16 ACC) completed its 2021 regular season with a win over NC State. That win secured the No. 5 seed in the ACC Tournament, with the Noles taking on the No. 9 seed Duke Blue Devils Wednesday.

Duke is the only ACC team the Noles didn’t play in 2021. What a regular season with lots of ebbs and flows.

The team looked awful in the early part of the season, losing the opener against North Florida and getting swept in their first conference series against Pittsburgh.

However, the team rebounded to swept beat Florida and swept the Miami Hurricanes on the road. A series loss against Wake Forest was disappointing, but the Noles only lost two more conference series the entire year.

I think everyone knows the ACC is arguably the best conference in the nation, but what was most frustrating was losses to teams like Jacksonville, Troy, and Florida Gulf Coast.

Takeaways From The Season

• FSU starting pitching is among the best in the nation. The bullpen is solid for the most part with a lot of quality arms. This pitching staff can go toe-to-toe with any pitching staff in the nation. The team ERA is 3.38, and their hits allowed per nine innings is No. 10 nationally. Their strikeout to walk ratio is No. 8, and their WHIP ranking is top 10 nationally. When they avoid walks, they are nearly unbeatable.
• The FSU defense had 52 errors in 50 games, which is an improvement over the last two seasons when they averaged nearly two errors per game. They made the routine play more often and seemed to play better as the year went on after a shaky start to the season.
• FSU batting was feast or famine all year with an incredible amount of strikeouts. They hit 72 home runs with three guys in double figures, including Matheu Nelson, who led the nation with 22. The team was striking out at a 34.7 percent clip at one point in the season. However, that decreased to 31.5 percent over the past 30 games. FSU batters were among the top 20 in drawing walks, which helped them average 6.3 runs per game. The bottom of the lineup was non-existent until the last few games. Here’s to hoping they will continue to be productive and give the top of the lineup some support.

Parting Thoughts

The team was incredibly frustrating to watch at times. They looked unbeatable at times, and then looked like a high school pitcher could have shut down the offense. FSU pitching usually keeps them in games, and it’s up to the offense to puts runs on the board. However, the opposite seemed to be the case against NC State, but they have one of the better offenses in the conference.

I think the Noles have a favorable draw in the ACC Tournament. They’ll need to win both games to make the semifinals. I like their pitching to give them a shot, as they were the only team to defeat No. 1 seed Notre Dame in a series this season.

I’ll have the preview for the Duke game up on Wednesday morning.