Link Jarrett on Marco Dinges: 'He's a fun guy to watch'

As Florida State cruises toward the postseason fresh off a remarkable turnaround under coach Link Jarrett, hitter Marco Dinges has been heating up.

He currently ranks third on the team in batting average at .316, doing a nice job powering the lineup with his consistent ability to get on base.

After some initial shuffling, Dinges has settled into a role as the team’s designated hitter.

“He’s a fun guy to watch and he’s a fun guy to interact with,” Jarrett said. “So you know that going in and you know he’s very talented. The positional piece, clearly he can catch and some of the things that happen when you’re in the middle of your season and he’s functioning as the designated hitter, and that’s not always an easy role for people, getting him back behind the plate has been something we clearly have kind of put on the back-burner.

“It’s not that he couldn’t do it. He’ll probably be a catcher at the professional level and could catch here. We have other guys that are doing a nice job. So you’re trying to figure out in the recruiting where the athletes fit in.”

Marco Dinges has started 43 of the 45 games he has appeared in for the team this year, a mainstay in the lineup.

Coming out of Tallahassee Community College, he certainly made Jarrett feel like he had a special weapon in the recruiting process.

“We knew this is a dynamic bat,” Jarrett said. “So now you fast-forward into our world and with the arms that we had when this thing started when you’re facing (Gavin) Adams and (Cam) Leiter and (Jamie) Arnold and (Carson) Dorsey and (Conner) Whittaker and you just keep Ben Barrett and it just keeps going on and on.

“How well do they recognize pitches, because what you see consistently in junior college you see sporadic examples of that type of arm. Once we got into the preseason, well, the fall, and you start to see him handle some of the secondary pitches that we were running up there, you then realized that you have a complete type of hitter.”

There was still one more challenge, though, that Jarrett wasn’t sure how Marco Dinges would fare with.

“Then you get into the season and the excitement and the intensity of the season brings another dimension to how do people handle this?” Jarrett said. “And he’s checked those boxes, and there have been some dynamic at-bats. He’s right in the middle of the lineup. Clearly the length of the lineup helps everybody in the lineup.”

Jarrett offered some high praise for his sophomore outfielder.

“His at-bats and his intensity with what he’s doing, it’s as good as you’ll see,” he said. “He cherishes those at-bats and every pitch and that’s rare. He’s good.”