Link Jarrett calls offense from bottom of the order 'significant statistics'

It’s easy to overlook the players at the bottom of the lineup for those at the top and middle of the lineup in baseball. Florida State Seminoles head coach Link Jarrett knows that. He also knows that the offense he gets from the bottom of his order is significant.

Following Florida State’s win over Georgia Tech on Thursday night, Jarrett praised the production from the bottom half of his lineup, calling the statistics that they’re putting up significant.

“They’ve accumulated some — what is it [Alex] Lodise‘s seventh home run and Drew [Faurot’s] fifth now,” Link Jarrett said. “So, to have guys that are down there that are that athletic and capable, I think it sometimes gets overshadowed by those guys in the middle that have clearly done so much damage that five, six, seven home runs doesn’t seem like a big deal. Faurot’s got 15, 16 doubles. Those are significant statistics.”

In the win over Georgia Tech on Thursday, both Lodise and Faurot hit homer runs. At the time, Faurot’s blast gave the Seminoles a one-run lead in the game that Florida State went on to win 8-3.

This season, Alex Lodise is hitting .289 with seven home runs and 38 RBIs. He’s also slugging .497 with an OBP of .356. He’s done all of that while playing shortstop, a premier defensive position. Drew Faurot, meanwhile, is hitting .258 with five home runs and 16 RBIs. Meanwhile, he’s slugging .439 with an OBP of .318. Again, like Lodise, he plays a key defensive position at second base.

Rounding out the bottom of the order for Florida State on Thursday was Jaxson West, the team’s catcher.

“I know it hasn’t come as consistent as we would like, in some respects,” Jarrett said “But those guys are young and they’re still learning and you see growth and you see development and you see them harnessing some of the things that you have to do to hit at a high level.”

Link Jarrett has been able to rely on the middle of his order this season for power, with James Tibbs hitting 24 home runs this season and three others being in double digits for home runs. That can make those players at the bottom of the order get overlooked very easily.

Florida State got another win over Georgia Tech on Friday to clinch a series win, before falling on Saturday to the Yellow Jackets in a close battle. Now, Link Jarrett and Florida State will turn their attention to the ACC Baseball Tournament where they’re hoping to make a deep run.