FSU baseball (41-14) will travel to take on No. 8 seed Oregon State in Super Regional play beginning on Friday at 6 p.m. ET.
FSU saw their odds of winning the College World Series improve greatly once they got through regional play in Tallahassee. I predicted FSU could be the betting favorite as the road team and wasn't far off.
The No. 9 seed overall FSU Seminoles opened as slight underdogs, according to FanDuel earlier on Tuesday. The odds for FSU opened at -104 (bet $104 to win $100), and the odds for Oregon State opened at -122 (bet $122 to win $100).
The implied probability of a -104 line is about 49 percent to win game one. That's much higher than some of the terrible metric systems you'll find floating around on social media.
FSU played the tougher schedule and has the better offense. The defenses are a wash, and FSU has three legitimate starting pitchers. I wrote how similar Oregon State was to the Mississippi State team FSU swept in regional play earlier on Tuesday.
The trip across multiple time zones will be a factor, and FSU would be betting favorites if the roles were reversed. Nevertheless, FSU took a trip out west to play the California Bears late in the season, which should provide some sense of how things will be this weekend.
FSU won two of three against the Bears, but Oregon State is a much better team than California.
FSU will return to the College World Series as long as they don't beat themselves. That boils down to pitchers avoiding walks, playing sound defense, and having quality at-bats. FSU did the first two well in regional play, but they need to improve on the latter, even though they found a way to get it done in the final game against Mississippi.
The scary part is that FSU did it without some of its best hitters playing well. If Alex Lodise and Max Williams find their groove? FSU will have a great shot to win the series.