FSU baseball: Noles take on the rival Gators in Jacksonville Tuesday night

FSU baseball (16-7, 6-3 ACC) will travel to take on the rival Florida Gators (17-7, 3-3 SEC) Tuesday night after a ACC series win over Duke.

Florida comes into the game after losing against LSU in two of their three-game series over the weekend.

Florida batters are hitting .295 with an on-base percentage of .384 and have hit 48 home runs, 37 doubles, and five triples.

Florida pitchers will enter the contest with a 3.82 ERA, with opposing teams batting .220, with 217 strikeouts and 84 walks in 214.1 innings. They have allowed 18 home runs.

Defensively, Florida has 18 errors in 24 games for a fielding percentage of .980.

FSU baseball pitchers enter the contest with a 3.58 ERA, with opposing teams batting .222, with 302 strikeouts and 90 walks in 216.1 innings.

FSU batters are hitting .284 with an on-base percentage of .381 and have 31 home runs, 58 doubles, and four triples.

Defensively, FSU has 28 errors in 23 games for a fielding percentage of .968. FSU has played the more difficult schedule with an RPI ranking of No. 11, compared to Florida’s No. 28 ranking.

Key To Victory

Carson Montgomery started both games against the Gators last year and pitched fairly well. He allowed five hits, two earned runs, five walks, and had 14 strikeouts in nine innings. Montgomery has won his last three starts and went a career-high seven innings in his last outing against UCF. A quality start against Florida would continue his upward trajectory.

Florida has been using Johnny Wholestaff in their mid-week games for the most part through the early part of the season. Garrett Milchin started both games against the Noles last year and faired well against him. He last appeared on March 20th against Alabama, so there’s a chance the Noles could face him again. FSU batters swung the bats decently against Duke, but will need a better performance than Sunday’s effort, although they hit some hard balls right at defenders at times.

The game will take place Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET and will air on the SEC Network.