A little bit about our team (I wrote this on another site before I discovered this one):
FSU entered the season with low expectations for a
program that has made 20 CWS appearances and has hosted a ridiculous amount of
regionals. We lost our starting rotation, set up man, closer, catcher, CF and
LF. Many of our fans, me included, didn’t think we would host a regional, much
less be a national seed. We received a huge boost when OF James Ramsey returned
for his sr. year. James won ACC POY this year. FSU and our longtime
assistant/pitching coach “parted ways” at the end of last season and we brought
in Mike Bell, former FSU pitcher and Oklahoma pitching coach. No one expected he
would be able to do much with a depleted pitching staff and without a full year
to recruit his own players. Bell immediately went with the “youth movement”,
starting the season with three freshmen in the starting rotation. (Fr. Peter Miller
was our Sunday guy, but was inconsistent at times and also had some arm trouble
and has not been able to bounce back after taking some time to rest his arm and
has not made his way back into our starting rotation).
Fast forward to today, and
one of the biggest surprises, if not the biggest, this year has been our
pitching and overall record. Our pitching is by no means dominant, but we have
won way more games with our pitching than anyone expected. Under our old
pitching coach, we rarely would win games with our pitching. We could always
rely on our hitting to win games, this year; we haven’t been able to do that.
This year, FSU (43-15/#3 RPI/13-6 vs. RPI top 25/12-3 in 1 run games) had a very
good regular season and then completely disappeared in the ACC Tournament going
0-3 after winning more regular season ACC games (24) in the history of the
conference. What was surprising about the three losses - during the regular
season we were 3-0 vs GT and 3-0 vs UVA and then lose to them both. While we
lost 2 of 3 to CU @ CU, we were winning all game and then gave up a 3 run walk
off hr to lose) We’ve only lost one weekend series all year (1-2 @ Clemson). We
have two good pitchers (both freshmen) in our starting rotation, but beyond the
two freshmen, we have struggled to find a third starter all year. This will
become a huge issue should we drop a game in the regional. Our ace is freshmen
LHP Brandon Leibrandt. He is 6-2 on the year and has a 2.91 ERA. His dad is a
former major league pitcher for the Atlanta Braves. He has been our ace from day
one. He has great composure for a freshmen and has three main pitches; fastball,
changup and curveball. If he has his changup working, he can be pretty tough. He
won’t strikeout a lot of batters, but spots his pitches really well and
typically will make hitters hit his pitch. He can only give us consistently 5- 6
innings, but has proven that he can go 7 if his pitch count is down. Our #2 is a
lot like our #1, except he throws from the right side. Freshmen Mike Compton is
10-2 on the year with an ERA of 2.88. Like our ace, he won’t go 8 or 9, but he
can give us a solid 5, maybe 6 innings. Neither pitcher is “dominant”, but they
live (and die) by spotting their pitches and getting hitters to hit their
pitches (when successful). Our third guy in the rotation, Scott Sitz, is 3-3
with a 4.14 ERA. Sitz is usually good for 3-5 innings, but he is very
inconsistent. Since none of our pitchers can go very deep in the game, this eats
at our bull pen which is not very deep. I keep hearing people talk about how
good our pen is, but really, we only have two-three guys I trust out of the pen
and both are RHP (our third RHP out of the pen is a fr., Luke Weaver, who has
great stuff and I believe he will be in the starting rotation next season, but
he is also very inconsistent). We don’t have one LHP out of the pen who we can
count on. That doesn’t mean we don’t have a few who can come in and get outs,
just not likely against better competition. We have a very good RHP set up man
(Gage Smith) who throws from the side and can give us 2 innings per appearance
and a very good RHP closer (Robert Benincasa). Benincasa is 4-1 on the year with
13 saves and a 1.36 ERA. He did not start the season as our closer, but he has
proved to be a very good college closer (minus the 3 run walk off homer he gave
up in the ACC Tournament). Offensively, we have been a disappointment. Hard to
say when you have the top two hitters in the ACC in Boyd (.395 BA) and Ramsey
(.382), but beyond our 1-4 hitters, and occasionally our #6 hitter and shortstop
Gonzales (who many would like to see be moved to the 5 hole), the bottom of our
order has not been able to consistently get things together to be much of a
threat. They can hit, and there have been some games when the bottom half of the
lineup has carried us, but not consistently. We leave a great number of men on
base, something, if you venture over to warchant.com (sectionb), you’ll hear
many of the fans complain about. We don’t hit a lot of HR’s and we won’t steal a
lot of bases. We can do both, just not a great deal. We do play pretty good
defense. All around the infield, we have very solid players who have been
playing together for 3-4 years. They have been making some surprising errors
towards the end of the season and in the ACC tournament, but this Seminole fan
hopes that does not occur in the postseason because our defense has proven to be
a real value to our team.
Overall, I wouldn’t be surprised one bit to see
you guys come into Tallahassee and win the regional. On the flip side, I
wouldn’t be surprised either to see us win it. Four weeks ago, I would have been
more confident; however, we have lost 8 of our 15 games in the past 4 weekends
(2-1 vs Maryland, 1-1 vs Stetson, 1-2 vs Clemson, 2-1 vs NCST and 0-3 in the ACC
tournament). Best case, we can start Sitz (#3) vs UAB and counter with our ace
in the second game. Would also be nice to have a big enough lead in the first
game to not have to use our trusted relievers in game one and keep them rested
for the winner bracket game. But that’s a perfect scenario, and I’m not sure
we’ll even throw our #3 vs a solid UAB club.
Regardless of how things turn out,
I hope for a great weekend of college baseball.Good Luck!
Go Noles!
FSU entered the season with low expectations for a
program that has made 20 CWS appearances and has hosted a ridiculous amount of
regionals. We lost our starting rotation, set up man, closer, catcher, CF and
LF. Many of our fans, me included, didn’t think we would host a regional, much
less be a national seed. We received a huge boost when OF James Ramsey returned
for his sr. year. James won ACC POY this year. FSU and our longtime
assistant/pitching coach “parted ways” at the end of last season and we brought
in Mike Bell, former FSU pitcher and Oklahoma pitching coach. No one expected he
would be able to do much with a depleted pitching staff and without a full year
to recruit his own players. Bell immediately went with the “youth movement”,
starting the season with three freshmen in the starting rotation. (Fr. Peter Miller
was our Sunday guy, but was inconsistent at times and also had some arm trouble
and has not been able to bounce back after taking some time to rest his arm and
has not made his way back into our starting rotation).
Fast forward to today, and
one of the biggest surprises, if not the biggest, this year has been our
pitching and overall record. Our pitching is by no means dominant, but we have
won way more games with our pitching than anyone expected. Under our old
pitching coach, we rarely would win games with our pitching. We could always
rely on our hitting to win games, this year; we haven’t been able to do that.
This year, FSU (43-15/#3 RPI/13-6 vs. RPI top 25/12-3 in 1 run games) had a very
good regular season and then completely disappeared in the ACC Tournament going
0-3 after winning more regular season ACC games (24) in the history of the
conference. What was surprising about the three losses - during the regular
season we were 3-0 vs GT and 3-0 vs UVA and then lose to them both. While we
lost 2 of 3 to CU @ CU, we were winning all game and then gave up a 3 run walk
off hr to lose) We’ve only lost one weekend series all year (1-2 @ Clemson). We
have two good pitchers (both freshmen) in our starting rotation, but beyond the
two freshmen, we have struggled to find a third starter all year. This will
become a huge issue should we drop a game in the regional. Our ace is freshmen
LHP Brandon Leibrandt. He is 6-2 on the year and has a 2.91 ERA. His dad is a
former major league pitcher for the Atlanta Braves. He has been our ace from day
one. He has great composure for a freshmen and has three main pitches; fastball,
changup and curveball. If he has his changup working, he can be pretty tough. He
won’t strikeout a lot of batters, but spots his pitches really well and
typically will make hitters hit his pitch. He can only give us consistently 5- 6
innings, but has proven that he can go 7 if his pitch count is down. Our #2 is a
lot like our #1, except he throws from the right side. Freshmen Mike Compton is
10-2 on the year with an ERA of 2.88. Like our ace, he won’t go 8 or 9, but he
can give us a solid 5, maybe 6 innings. Neither pitcher is “dominant”, but they
live (and die) by spotting their pitches and getting hitters to hit their
pitches (when successful). Our third guy in the rotation, Scott Sitz, is 3-3
with a 4.14 ERA. Sitz is usually good for 3-5 innings, but he is very
inconsistent. Since none of our pitchers can go very deep in the game, this eats
at our bull pen which is not very deep. I keep hearing people talk about how
good our pen is, but really, we only have two-three guys I trust out of the pen
and both are RHP (our third RHP out of the pen is a fr., Luke Weaver, who has
great stuff and I believe he will be in the starting rotation next season, but
he is also very inconsistent). We don’t have one LHP out of the pen who we can
count on. That doesn’t mean we don’t have a few who can come in and get outs,
just not likely against better competition. We have a very good RHP set up man
(Gage Smith) who throws from the side and can give us 2 innings per appearance
and a very good RHP closer (Robert Benincasa). Benincasa is 4-1 on the year with
13 saves and a 1.36 ERA. He did not start the season as our closer, but he has
proved to be a very good college closer (minus the 3 run walk off homer he gave
up in the ACC Tournament). Offensively, we have been a disappointment. Hard to
say when you have the top two hitters in the ACC in Boyd (.395 BA) and Ramsey
(.382), but beyond our 1-4 hitters, and occasionally our #6 hitter and shortstop
Gonzales (who many would like to see be moved to the 5 hole), the bottom of our
order has not been able to consistently get things together to be much of a
threat. They can hit, and there have been some games when the bottom half of the
lineup has carried us, but not consistently. We leave a great number of men on
base, something, if you venture over to warchant.com (sectionb), you’ll hear
many of the fans complain about. We don’t hit a lot of HR’s and we won’t steal a
lot of bases. We can do both, just not a great deal. We do play pretty good
defense. All around the infield, we have very solid players who have been
playing together for 3-4 years. They have been making some surprising errors
towards the end of the season and in the ACC tournament, but this Seminole fan
hopes that does not occur in the postseason because our defense has proven to be
a real value to our team.
Overall, I wouldn’t be surprised one bit to see
you guys come into Tallahassee and win the regional. On the flip side, I
wouldn’t be surprised either to see us win it. Four weeks ago, I would have been
more confident; however, we have lost 8 of our 15 games in the past 4 weekends
(2-1 vs Maryland, 1-1 vs Stetson, 1-2 vs Clemson, 2-1 vs NCST and 0-3 in the ACC
tournament). Best case, we can start Sitz (#3) vs UAB and counter with our ace
in the second game. Would also be nice to have a big enough lead in the first
game to not have to use our trusted relievers in game one and keep them rested
for the winner bracket game. But that’s a perfect scenario, and I’m not sure
we’ll even throw our #3 vs a solid UAB club.
Regardless of how things turn out,
I hope for a great weekend of college baseball.Good Luck!
Go Noles!