Florida State baseball isn’t a well-coached team, and that falls on Link Jarrett. I wrote about how FSU could easily win the Tallahassee Regional, but also how they could lose it.
Unfortunately, the latter reared its head on Friday night as FSU allowed St. John’s to overcome a 5-2 deficit to win 6-5. Bryson Moore went five innings and left the game in line to get the win, but the FSU bullpen couldn’t hold the lead as Chris Knier and John Abraham (it's two best relievers) combined to allow three earned runs on five hits and five walks.
Hunter Carns allowed several balls to get away, as St. John’s scored at least two runs on balls in the dirt.
Florida State was lucky St. John’s tried to mimic them on the bases, getting picked off four times in the early part of the game. Otherwise, they probably would have scored more runs early.
FSU losing the game was bad enough, but the worst is yet to come because Florida State will now likely face a better team on Saturday with a depleted bullpen. Chris Knier and John Abraham will not be available, but FSU will also need to win four straight games to advance to Super Regional play.
Florida State isn't built to come out of the loser's bracket and will face long odds to win four straight.
The inability to get runners home reared its ugly head against a St. John’s pitching staff that’s nothing special. They struck out nine times Friday night, failed to get a sacrifice bunt down, and then struck out to make matters worse. How this offense fails to make adjustments is mind-blowing.
It’s issues that have plagued this team ALL season, and at some point, it has to come back to Link Jarrett.
Florida State will need Wes Mendes or Trey Beard to pitch the game of his life on Saturday to save the bullpen as much as possible for a potential four-game stretch. However, more than anything, the offense has to find ways to score runs. Yes, the bullpen can’t blow a three-run lead, but truthfully, the lead should have been bigger with the number of runners FSU left on base.
FSU will play the loser of the Coastal Carolina/Northern Illinois game at 1 p.m.
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