ACC Tournament: FSU baseball looks to avenge Notre Dame loss

FSU baseball (33-22) used an offensive explosion to beat No. 5 seed Virginia 13-3 and will turn their sights to No. 4 seed Notre Dame (33-13) in the ACC Tournament.

The two teams squared off early this year in a three-game series. The Fighting Irish won the first game 2-0 in extra innings before finishing the series sweep with scores of 5-4 and 9-7.

The first two games could have gone either way, with the third game not as close as the score indicates. FSU baseball will have Parker Messick going for the Noles on the mound. He pitched eight scoreless innings with 11 strikeouts in that first game.

However, Notre Dame pitcher John Bertrand was nearly as good, pitching 7.2 innings with 12 strikeouts and one walk. Notre Dame has been one of the better teams in the conference in all three phases.

They bat .300 as a team, have the second-best ERA of 4.03, and a conference-best fielding percentage of .981. They usually won’t beat themselves, and teams have to earn everything they get offensively.

Keys To Victory

Of course, the Noles will need another strong start from Parker Messick. Messick hasn’t had his best stuff in his last two outings and will need to work ahead counts and change speeds effectively.

I think he’ll show up, but the question is will the FSU offense show up two days in a row? The performance against Virginia should provide confidence heading into the Notre Dame game, and they’ll need to continue the aggressive approach of hitting the ball to the opposite field and taking advantage of opportunities during hitter counts.

Notre Dame has an outstanding bullpen, so getting to their starting pitching early would be a bonus. The Irish are 6-2 on neutral a neutral field. The game will begin at 3 p.m. ET and air on the Bally Network(just like yesterday).