FSU baseball (24-4, 7-2 ACC) has won every ACC series thus far, but the three teams they've faced are at or near the bottom of the conference. They will welcome the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (21-9, 7-5 ACC) to Tallahassee for a three-game series beginning on Friday at 8 p.m. on the ACC Network.
It should be an electric atmosphere with the FSU Marching Chiefs in attendance. Wake Forest got swept at home against Virginia Tech last week and will have something to prove, on top of facing a top-five team tied atop the ACC standing.
It's not a great matchup for FSU. Wake Forest pitchers have 359 strikeouts in only 253.1 innings. They've walked 141 and batters hit .209 against them. FSU batters strikeout in 25.5 percent of their at-bats.
FSU starting pitching has been a question mark over the past two weekends, aside from Joey Volini. Jamie Arnold and Wes Mendes have struggled with control issues, and haven't made it past the fourth inning in their last two starts.
Wake Forest is arguably the best offensive team they have faced, batting .319 with 56 home runs and a .443 on-base percentage. They have swiped 50 of 57 stolen base attempts. We've seen teams try to exploit that area of late. Wake Forest has struggled on the road with a 4-4 record and they have a .960 fielding percentage.
Keys to Victory
FSU pitchers MUST get ahead in counts and avoid walks. Jamie Arnold must set the tone Friday night and return to his dominant self. He pitched well last year, striking out 12 in 5.2 innings and allowed three earned runs.
FSU batters must attack early in counts when Wake Forest pitchers are in the strike zone. It's curtains if they get down in the count. They must put more balls in play because the Demon Deacons can kick it around on defense at times. They must take the walks when the opportunities present themselves because they will walk batters trying to get batters to chase pitches out of the zone. Opposing teams have swiped 19 of 21 bases.
This series will be a great barometer to see where this FSU team stacks up. If they win this series, it would give me a lot of confidence in this team moving forward.