FSU baseball (15-1) suffered its first loss of the 2025 season to the rival Florida Gators. The reactions I've seen to the loss are funny. Some are outlandish and I won't entertain them because winning baseball games is difficult. The common theme seems to be people blaming the loss on FSU playing a soft non-conference schedule.
FSU was going to lose a baseball game at some point. They will lose several more like every other college baseball team. It sucks that the first loss was against the rival Gators, but it's not even a speed bump in the grand scheme. FSU smoked Florida in all three games last year and made it deep into the College World Series.
Florida had already lost two games and had played a ton of terrible teams before Tuesday night. FSU playing 2-3 games against better teams earlier in the year wasn't going to make a difference on Tuesday night. The difference in the game was execution. Evan Chrest leaving the game unexpectedly didn't help, but that's no excuse. I hope his injury isn't anything major.
FSU pitchers issued six walks, and Florida pitchers issued two. FSU made a costly error to allow Florida to score its first run, and Florida didn't make any errors. FSU pitchers failed to execute pitches in some key moments. They had done that against other teams on the schedule, but the difference is the margin for error is much smaller against good teams.
The same goes for the offense. Florida batters struck out 11 times, and FSU batters struck out 10(with five coming from true freshmen). The latter is something I pointed out earlier in the year, that they would likely struggle early in the season against good pitching.
Transitioning from HS to college ain't easy as a hitter. Don't expect Bailey and other young guys to just mash at the plate right away. It's a process, and they'll get better with more experience. Expect a lot of growing pains early.
— Kelvin Hunt (@khchopchat) February 19, 2025
Florida batters only had two more hits than FSU, but it's when they got those hits that was the difference. FSU batters seemed to press once they got down 4-1 and started playing hero ball, instead of concentrating on quality at-bats.
FSU looked overmatched at the plate from a velocity standpoint, but it wasn't the velocity, because they've seen guys throwing mid-90s a few times this year. It was Florida pitchers' ability to throw secondary pitches for strikes. When pitchers can throw a slider or changeup for a strike on different counts, and still have a 95+mph fastball in the tuck? It going to be a tough at-bat.
I mentioned they needed to have patience at the plate in the preview, and it was anything but that on Tuesday night. These are all things they can improve on.
FSU playing a soft schedule probably was more beneficial than you think considering how much they lost from last year's team. It has given Link the opportunity to define roles earlier and get young guys some experience and early success.
Now they have to hone in on the execution part, and that comes with more reps and experience on the mound and at the plate. The Boston College series this weekend will be a good barometer to see what this team is made of.