Georgia Tech sweeps Florida State in ACC play, major lessons learned from the series

No. 5 Florida State baseball went north a couple of hours and got swept by the No. 3 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in a three-game series over the weekend. It was the first series loss for the Noles in ACC play, and it’s likely there will be a huge overreaction from FSU and Georgia Tech fans.

Florida State fans will think FSU is worse than they really are, and Georgia Tech fans will think they have a better shot now than ever to win the College World Series. Neither fan base would be correct.

Here’s the thing. I wrote before the series; it was all about how FSU's pitching matched up against the Georgia Tech offense. If the pitching could hold Georgia Tech in check, they’d have a shot.

FSU pitching held Georgia Tech’s offense in check much better than I anticipated in the first two games. Georgia Tech was held scoreless in most of the innings in the series and scored the majority of its runs with two outs. We have to give them credit for delivering in those key moments, but the rate at which they scored with two outs probably isn’t sustainable.

We knew the FSU offense would be challenged to score runs, but they had ample opportunities to win game one and mostly beat themselves. FSU found some power in the series, launching six home runs, but five were of the solo variety. The strikeouts were fewer than usual overall, but they just couldn’t string hits together or would have a poor at-bat in a key situation.

Florida State has to change their approach at the plate and stop beating themselves with dumb base running mistakes.

The biggest lesson I learned from the series was that Florida State’s starting pitching mostly contained the best offense in the country. The bullpen in the first two games pitched fine, aside from one bad inning, and that’s with FSU’s starters not going past 5.1 innings in any start. They issued far too many walks, but that’s a difficult lineup to go up against.

We knew the Florida State offense would struggle, but they had some opportunities and just didn’t capitalize. They continue to struggle with situational hitting, and the overall quality of each at-bat was poor. Brayden Dowd is the only hitter who seems to know what their plan is when he goes to the batter’s box. John Stuetzer had a strong series for a freshman. Chase Williams actually had a good series at the plate.

Cal Fisher and Hunter Carns went 1-9. Eli Putnam went 1-10. FSU isn’t going to beat many good teams when those three go 3-19 (.157 batting average).

I have to give it to the Georgia Tech fans. They provided a tough atmosphere to play in, and it was loud while watching on TV. Clemson swept FSU in embarrassing fashion in 2024. Wake Forest run-ruled FSU in Dick Howser Stadium in back-to-back games last year, and FSU rebounded nicely.

There’s still a lot of baseball left, and a lot of it is how the two teams match up. This FSU team will be fine against any team with mediocre to good pitching and a good offense. It’s when they face a team with elite pitching or elite hitting that they’ll probably come out on the short end of the stick more times than not.

They will have a chance to have a nice bounce back week this week at home against Stetson and Notre Dame.