FSU baseball: Takeaways before beginning ACC Conference play

FSU baseball (8-4, 0-0 ACC) will enter ACC Conference play this weekend when they travel to play Wake Forest. The Noles hold an 8-4 non-conference record after defeating FGCU 10-4 Tuesday night.

Pitching

In the preseason, I wrote that starting pitching would be the team strength, and I had questions surrounding the offense and the defense. That’s been the case through the first 12 games. Parker Messick and Bryce Hubbart have been as advertised, and Ross Dunn has turned in two quality starts in his last two outings. Carson Montgomery has shown progression, getting his first college win Tuesday night against a potent FGCU offense. The bullpen has been sporadic, and some guys we thought would be dependable have not been thus far. There are too many walks and falling behind in the count from those guys, and that needs to improve.

Hitting

The offense is about what I thought it would be with all of the production they lost from last year’s team. I wasn’t as high as some because there are not a lot of proven players in the lineup. Ironically, the better hitters on the team have been freshmen or transfers. Jaime Ferrer, James Tibbs, and Brett Roberts have been the most consistent. Reese Albert has a high batting average, but most of that production came in the first series against James Madison. Jordan Carrion, Logan Lacey, and Alex Toral have been solid. The team still strikes out way too much (30 percent) of their at-bats and fails to take advantage of hitter counts(0-0, 2-0, 2-1, 3-1, etc). They have left 91 runners on base. The baserunning has left a lot to desire, but they have shown improvement regarding putting pressure on defenses with stolen base attempts (13 of 18). They have to stay consistent in their approach to drive the ball up the middle and to the opposite field. Also, it would be great if they cut down on their swings a bit when they have two strikes because the odds of hitting at home run at that point are relatively small. They need to put the ball in play more because that’s when good things can happen.

Defense

The defense averages an error per game, with freshman second baseman Treyton Rank as the only player with multiple errors(3). However, he’s made some nice plays in the field as well. Transfer Jordan Carrion has been a clear upgrade at shortstop and overall, they seem to be better defensively. We’ll see how that plays out as the season progresses.

Overall

The starting pitching is good enough to beat or compete with anyone. Will the bullpen be able to hold leads when they come into the game? Will the offense be consistent enough and score enough runs for larger margins of error? Wake Forest (11-1) will provide an excellent early conference test to see where the Noles stack up this weekend.