FSU baseball: What to look for in season opener against James Madison

FSU baseball will get the Link Jarrett era officially underway Friday evening when they host James Madison for a three-game series.

There’s a lot of excitement surrounding the program, but also lots of questions, with several new faces becoming important contributors in 2023.

Jarrret announced his starting pitching rotation for the weekend earlier this week. Carson Montgomery will get the nod against a nearly .500 James Madison club from a year ago.

Here’s what I’m looking for Friday night:

• Consistency and efficiency from Montgomery
• Offensive approach at the plate
• The little things

-Montgomery has an MLB arm but has struggled to put it all together during his time in Tallahassee. He has shown flashes of dominance. I’m talking an inning or two here and there, but not over consecutive starts. However, he did make some progress last season, surpassing the five-inning mark in his starts a few times, for the very first time. I need to see him in the strike zone, not wasting pitches trying to strike every batter out. My hope is we can see him go five innings at about 75-80 total pitches. I’ll be looking to see who comes out of the bullpen also.

-I want to see a defined offensive approach at the plate. We saw FSU hitters watch way too many fastballs for strikes last year while swinging at pitches outside of the zone when they got two strikes. I want to see him attacking fastballs early in counts, driving pitches away to the opposite field instead of trying to pull everything, resulting in weak ground balls to shortstop and third base. If they get to two-strike counts, hopefully, we’ll see them shorten up the swing and look to put the ball in play.

-By the little things, I mean not getting picked off the base paths. Little things like situational hitting with a runner on second base and no outs. A right-handed batter should be looking to hit the ball to the right side, and lefties pull the ball to move the runner over. Little things like reading balls in the dirt while on the bases and taking the next base when pitchers miss low and in the dirt. Jaime Ferrer was excellent at this last year. Little things like pitchers getting ahead in the count early to dictate the at-bat. Little things like making the routine play defensively.

Overall

These are things Link Jarrett teams have done well historically. He wants great defense and pitching, because they give you a chance to win even though the offense may not be on that day.

FSU baseball swept James Madison last year, and should be a good opponent to open things up against on a good note Friday night.