With UF coming to town, Seminoles seek return to, 'clean, sound baseball'

After a fast start to this season, with an impressive road series victory at TCU and 11 wins in its first 14 games, the Florida State baseball team got a strong dose of reality over the past week.

A wide assortment of miscues — from errors in the field to mistakes on the mound — have played a major role in the Seminoles losing five of their last six games. In Sunday’s series-clinching loss to Boston College, wild pitches, misplayed balls and bad throws led to the Eagles scoring seven unearned runs.

And to make matters worse, first-year Florida State coach Link Jarrett thinks some of the mistakes on defense have led to added pressure and problems on offense.

“Whether it’s an individual who then has to go to the plate, it’s tough to shake some of the quirky mistakes that you saw today,” Jarrett said on Sunday.

The Seminoles committed four errors in that game — three by senior Nander De Sedas, who was filling in at third base, and one by catcher Colton Vincent. Several other plays were not handled cleanly.

And for a team that is hitting .311 on the season, the Seminoles struggled offensively in each of the final two games against Boston College. They hit a combined .236 in those two games and scored two runs in each game after pounding out 19 runs on Friday.

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The pitching staff, which was without ace Wyatt Crowell for the entire Boston College series, also struggled on Sunday. Starter Carson Montgomery lasted only 2 2/3 innings and threw three wild pitches, and the Seminoles’ four pitchers on the day combined to issue more free passes (seven walks, two hit batters) than they did record strikeouts (eight).

Florida State’s pitchers appeared to get frustrated at times with the strike zone and some calls by the home-plate umpire, but Jarrett said it’s hard to expect borderline calls when pitchers aren’t consistently hitting their spots.

“I don’t think we are stringing quality pitches together,” he said. “That’s been a concern of mine since Day 1.”

While Jarrett doesn’t necessarily want to dwell on the mistakes Florida State’s players have made in recent games, he did say that they could use them as a motivational tool.

“It’s the ability to refresh, come out and play a good energetic game,” Jarrett said, when asked about the key to snapping out of a tough stretch. “But you have to let that frustration fuel you a little bit.”

After a poor few games, the schedule doesn’t get easier for Florida State. In fact, this next week could be the toughest of the entire season on paper.

The Seminoles take on arch rival Florida tonight in Dick Howser Stadium. The Gators are ranked No. 3 in the country and they’re 18-4 on the season; they’re led offensively by sluggers Jac Caglianone and Josh Rivera, who have blasted 13 and 10 home runs respectively.

Then this weekend, Florida State is traveling to Charlottesville, Va., to face a Virginia Cavaliers squad that is 17-2 on the season and ranked No. 8.

When asked how his team will approach such a daunting slate after a week of struggles, Jarrett insisted the opposition isn’t his primary concern. The biggest thing he wants to see is his team not beat itself with errors and other miscues.

“It’s just playing good, clean, sound baseball,” Jarrett said. “That’s what we all want. It’s not as much who — I know that’s a big game, I get it. … But it’s how we are doing, it’s not really who. I’m not worried about who. … We have to go play the game better.”

Freshman right-hander Ben Barrett (0-0, 3.18 ERA) is expected to start on the mound for Florida State, while UF is scheduled to go with redshirt sophomore righty Tyler Nesbitt (1-0, 1.17). First pitch is slated for 7 p.m. on the ACC Network.

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