On Friday, Florida State, the No. 2 seed in the ACC tournament and the No. 6 team in the country, rolled Duke 14-6, scoring eight runs in the third inning.
It was a demolition in Durham as Florida State completely outclassed a good Duke team — a day later, against an elite team, the Seminoles were once again unable to take down North Carolina, the No. 3 team in the country and eventual ACC Tournament champions. FSU played a solid game, but lost on the margins where elite squads typically cash in.
The final two frames against UNC painted an uncomfortable picture of the ceiling on the roster. FSU relied on the offense of a true freshman, Myles Bailey, and a platoon bat, Brody DeLamielleure, to spark the offense on Friday. On Saturday, the Seminoles were gifted three of their five runs with a walk and a UNC error before Bailey blasted another home run, and Florida State’s offensive superstar, Alex Lodise, broke through after starting the game 0-3. Defensively, Jarrett always talks about being hard to score on, but they were anything but. The Tar Heels easily stole bases, the corner outfielders allowed balls into the corner to drop and turn into extra bases, and FSU committed multiple errors. If the Noles have to play perfect baseball and need almost every bat hot to defeat a high-level club, what does it say about them?
Florida State held strong against the Tar Heels, but deservedly lost, although there is no shame in losing to a team as talented as UNC.
Unless, of course, the goal is to win a national title and I have said this all year, this is not a true national title contender — and unfortunately, I continue to get confirmation on that hypothesis. While an exceptional rotation, especially by college baseball standards, they are not the best in the country. They are 17-13 against Quad 1 and 2 opponents, and 21-1 against everyone else. FSU went 14-7 in road and neutral site games, an impressive record, except four of the seven losses were the series defeats to Louisville, Florida and UNC, their three most difficult away-from-home matchups the Noles played in. Those missed opportunities should put Jarrett’s team on the road in the super regionals, assuming they get through the Tallahassee regional, which they should because they have proven an ability to take care of business when needed.
Again, those numbers should not be anything to sneeze at, and if anything, they confirm that Link Jarrett can build a program in Tallahassee after losing his top four bats, the 2-4 from his rotation from a season ago.
But it is hard not to be disappointed in what looks like an inevitable early ending to the year after the blistering start to the campaign and even the chances in front of them later on in the season. They just feel like a team that is a piece away on the mound and at the plate. What would this lineup look like if FSU could afford another high-impact veteran bat from the transfer portal or if Cam Leiter were healthy?
Probably a lot different. Right now, though, Jarrett needs to squeeze all the juice he can out of the club because, as he knows better than anyone else, every season without a championship is another year longer the program waits to finally claim the title they have never held — national champion.
The way this team plays will cause the streak to continue.