FSU baseball: 3 reasons to be confident, 3 reasons to worry about Tennessee
By Kelvin Hunt
Tennessee Offensive Power
Listen, Jamie Arnold is a DUDE. Tennessee facing him at night is to his advantage, and Charles Schwab Field is larger than most college ballparks. However, the likelihood he'll throw a complete game or eight innings is relatively small. Tennessee has an explosive lineup with seven guys hitting 11+ home runs. They have five guys with 18+ home runs and four with an on-base percentage over .441. They have hit 150 doubles and have five guys batting .313 or higher. It'll be strength versus strength with Arnold going against this lineup, and it should be an electric atmosphere where Arnold usually thrives. However, all it takes is a walk or hit and one mistake, and it's two or three runs on the board in a hurry.
I looked at every homerun @Vol_Baseball hit during postseason play, and compared the distances to the dimensions of Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.
— Tennessee Williams (@TN_Williams) June 11, 2024
Of the 32 home runs Vols hit during the postseason, 26 would have been home runs in Omaha. 6 would have been short of the fence.
Most lineups allow pitchers to pitch around a guy here and there, but Tennessee's lineup doesn't provide that luxury, much like FSU doesn't. What if Tennessee makes Arnold battle early and gets his pitch count up quicker than he'd want? As I mentioned, I trust a few arms out of the FSU bullpen, but they are not Jamie Arnold. Once the ball goes to the FSU bullpen, it changes the game. The later FSU can hand it off to them, the better.