FSU softball (20-5, 0-0 ACC) began its West Coast trip last week, playing against Oregon State, Oregon, and will finish up against Portland State with two games on Tuesday.
FSU has gone 2-2, defeating Oregon State twice and losing against Oregon twice.
Those two losses have cost the Noles as they dropped out of the top 10 in the latest rankings released on Monday:
Oregon and Tennessee rise into the Top 10. Two new teams enter the Softball America poll.
— Softball America (@SoftbalAmerica) March 10, 2025
See the full Top 25 here: https://t.co/muABgryGRM pic.twitter.com/zuQUcTJb0s
FSU fell to No. 11 after starting the week at No. 9. FSU lost against Oregon 0-1 and 0-2.
The good news is that FSU's pitching is light-years better than last year. The problem is that the offense has disappeared when playing against the better pitching staff. Here's a stat for you. FSU has lost five games (all against ranked teams), playing 36 innings, and has not scored in 31.
FSU has three hits against Oregon in two games, and there are a few reasons. The top half of the lineup has hit some balls hard, just right at the defense. Sometimes they haven't taken advantage of hitter counts, and other times, they have been too aggressive early in counts, chasing fringe pitches.
Oregon pitchers pitched inside a lot, and that seemed to make FSU batter uncomfortable. That's an approach we could see more teams take against the Noles.
The bottom half of the lineup is something I've pointed out before, but Coach Alameda has some work to do to find answers. FSU hasn't gotten much from the 6-9 batters in the order, and they don't seem to have a real plan of attack at the plate.
The good news is they were not getting mowed down and striking out a ton. They only struck out five times in each Oregon game, but they only walked once in those two games. That's indicative of not having patience at the plate and chasing those fringe pitches I mentioned earlier.
It's not time to panic yet, but we need to start seeing some adjustments from FSU batters when going up against the better teams. FSU is at its best when they take walks and create chaos on the bases, with some power-hitting sprinkled on top. I hope to see these things when they finish their West Coast trip on Tuesday against Portland State.