FSU baseball: 3 keys to defeating UConn Huskies in Super Regionals

FSU Starting Pitching

If you told me Carson Dorsey and Jamies Arnold would go into the eighth and seventh innings of their starts last week, I'd almost guarantee a win for FSU. Will the two repeat what they did in the regionals? I have my doubts Dorsey can replicate his effort, but Jamie Arnold has been one of the best pitchers in college baseball all season. The key to Dorsey's success is avoiding walks. If he does that, he's usually successful and good for at least five innings. The other thing he must avoid is throwing pitches over the middle of the plate in pitcher counts. He allows too many hits on 0-2 and 1-2 counts. If FSU can get five to six innings out of Dorsey, that would be a huge boon to the FSU bullpen.

The more the FSU starters can reduce the number of outs the bullpen has to get, the better. I'd imagine FSU will start Jamie Arnold for the first game. The formula has been FSU starting pitching with Brennan Oxford out of the bullpen. If FSU can win game one, FSU could go from Carson Dorsey to Conner Whittaker if they wanted or felt they could win game two. That would minimize the bullpen greatly, but would be a gamble if they somehow lost game two. I expect UConn to attempt to make FSU starting pitchers work to try to get into the bullpen as quickly as possible. That's why they must get ahead in counts and avoid walks to keep their pitch counts down. FSU's bullpen doesn't have the best depth, so starting pitching getting quality innings will be key.