Fred - how about a little scouting report on FSU. Haven't seen them play at all this years. How good do you think they are ? Pitching ? Hitting?
Thanks in advance.
Well… I’m not an expert. I have not seen much FSU action this year. They are coming off a 2-1 home series win over Louisville where they could have easily lost a game they won. They game up 3 runs late to fall behind by 1 run… then got 2 in B9 for the walk-off win. Lost the 3rd game of series… so, FSU is “riding” a conference losing streak (of one) coming into Friday’s game.
They play Jacksonville today.
They lost their Friday starter for the season before he completed 5 innings opening weekend.
They have experience in their lineup. Last year… they salvaged a poor “regular” season, peaking at the correct point by winning ACC tournament, their regional, the super-regional… getting back to the CWS.
They have a very high RPI (#7)... mainly due to starting season 14-0. Since then... they've come back down to earth going 8-7 in their last 15 games. Granted...they (like Ga Tech) are up there on strength-of-schedule too. They are beatable for sure. Lost opening ACC series at Wake. Have managed to get to 7-5 in ACC play against mostly average ACC competition (@WF, ND, @UNC, LOU). Won 3 of those series (2-1 each) and lost series to WF (1-2).
All that...to me... does not change the bottom line. The margin of error (in general) is always thin. Ga Tech has to execute in all phases to have any hope of winning the series. If we play like we did last weekend... a sweep is certainly in reach. It is not realistic to assume we can duplicate that near perfect 3-game stretch. The fact we are playing at home leads me to believe winning series should be well within reach. On the other hand, their are 2 scenarios that could occur too and make success more difficult for the good guys.. FSU plays up to their potential and pre-season hype and/or Ga Tech falls on the wrong side of the margin of error line.
This may be key.. they lead NCAA is walks. Can't allow them those freebies. Here are some key team stats (comparisons) as of this morning…pretty even:
Stat / GT / FSU
BA / .309 / .259
Runs per Gm / 6.7 / 6.6
Slg% / .469 / .406
On Base % / .388 / .394
ERA / 4.69 / 3.92
WHIP / 1.41 / 1.33