NCAA Regional Profile: #9 National Seed Florida State hosts in Tallahassee, FL

(NCAA photo/CBC image)

By College Baseball Central writers Micah Beutell, Bo Carter, Noah Darling, Caleb Donnelley, Mark Garland, Andrew Kube, Doug Kyle, Jake Mastroianni, Jake McKeever, Andrew Riedell, and Colton Watson

Host: Florida State Seminoles (Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium)

1. Florida State (38-14, 17-10 Atlantic Coast Conference)

2. Northeastern (48-9, 25-2 Coastal Athletic Conference)

3. Mississippi State (34-21, 15-15 Southeastern Conference)

4. Bethune Cookman (37-21, 24-5 Southwestern Athletic Conference)

#1 Florida State

RPI* 14  SOS 24  Record vs Q1: 13-10 Q2: 4-3

Florida State comes in as the No. 9 National Seed after a strong 38-14 season. Under head coach, Link Jarrett, now in his third year at the helm, the Seminoles are aiming to build on last year’s College World Series run and chase their elusive first national championship. This year’s team has been balanced and explosive. Offensively, Florida State has been one of the most dangerous lineups in the country, hitting .314 as a team with 93 home runs through 52 games. They can strike quickly and put pressure on opponents from top to bottom in the order. On the mound, the Seminoles have shown consistency with a team ERA just under 4.80 and a staff that limits opponents to a .234 batting average. Defensively, they’ve been solid with a .979 fielding percentage, rarely giving away extra outs.

The regional field won’t be easy. Florida State opens against Bethune-Cookman, the SWAC champion with a dangerous offense. Elsewhere in the bracket, Mississippi State is surging after a strong finish in SEC play, and Northeastern comes in red-hot with a 27-game winning streak and a well-rounded roster. The Seminoles will have their hands full in the Tallahassee Regional. Florida State will have to keep the bats going in a pitching heavy regional, stay solid defensively, and get the big hits with runners in scoring position.

#2 Northeastern

RPI* 22  SOS 168  Record vs Q1: 2-3 Q2: 6-2

The hottest team in the country the last two months will be the two seed in Tallahassee as the Huskies enter the tournament on a 27 game winning streak including sweeping through the CAA Tournament for the Autobid as Northeastern enters with a 22 RPI. Northeastern's schedule has included of course that winning streak but wins in the Bean Pot series vs Boston College, and Harvard as well as wins against bubble teams UCONN and Kansas State this season. Led by CAA Coach of the Year Mike Glavine they also have CAA Player of the Year Harrison Feinberg who has hit .379 this season with 18 home runs and 66 RBIs as well as stealing 36 bases this year. This team loves stealing bases as they ranked second in the country in stolen bases with 192 this season. Pitching for the Huskies this season has been tremendous too pitching to a team ERA of 2.92 led by Will Jones and his 1.82 ERA and his 11-0 record. Jordan Gottesman has a 2.30 ERA and leads the team with 91 strikeouts.

#3 Mississippi State

RPI* 35  SOS 27  Record vs Q1: 8-17 Q2: 3-3

It’s been a roller coaster year in Starkville, starting with a 1-9 SEC record that included getting swept at home by Texas to start conference play, losing two winnable games at Oklahoma when the Sooners were Top 10, then sitting around for hours in Baton Rouge rain before getting swept at LSU. Faith still remained with equally-struggling South Carolina coming to town, and the team seemed to show signs of life when they rallied to take the last two over the Gamecocks. Things looked even better when the Bulldogs went to Alabama and won a road series there, even getting their first-ever run-rule conference win on an opponent’s field.

But, the Florida Gators, victims of an even worse SEC start at 1-11 before getting right off Missouri, came to town and won the first two, dampening the hopes for recovery that had sustained supporters. An extra inning non-conference 8-7 loss to rival Ole Miss, giving up two runs in the 9th and the winning one in the 10th, made things more precarious, and a series loss at Auburn led the way for a dismissal of National-Championship-winning head coach Chris Lemonis the next day.

Pitching Coach Justin Parker took over as Interim Head Coach, the first time in the history of the program a head coach had been fired for on-the-field performance (Andy Cannizzaro’s 0-3 at Southern Miss starting 2018 notwithstanding). And the team went on an upswing, run-ruling Memphis the following day, then sweeping Kentucky and taking two from Ole Miss, both at home.

Trepidation of heading to Missouri, long a thorn in the Bulldog Baseball side, with them being 0-27 was somewhat dissipated, and awareness emphasized, when the Tigers swept Texas A&M, and the team seemed to relax before going on a tear, scoring 50 runs to 11 and seeing Hunter Hines eclipse the career home run record of Rafael Palmeiro set 40 years earlier. Hines got the two he needed, then added a third for the weekend that now makes him the active leader in career home runs leader in all of D1 baseball, one ahead of Texas A&M’s Jace Laviolette.

There’s a lot of pitching depth on the team, led by ace Pico Kohn, surging Evan Siary, and veteran Karson Ligon. Relief has been by committee with Ben Davis, Nate Williams, Ryan McPherson, and 2021 ring-holder Stone Simmons all playing roles. Sometime-closer Luke Dotson is said by Parker to have the best fast ball on the team. The wild card, though, might be freshman lefty Charlie Foster, who arrived on campus as a contender for a rotation spot and has nursed arm soreness until returning briefly at Missouri and the SEC Tournament in Hoover.

Hitting is led by SEC Newcomer of the Year Ace Reese, Hines, two-way player Noah Sullivan, and steadies Reed Stallman, Gehrig Frei, Sawyer Reeves, and Gatlin Sanders. Joe Powell has become the starting catcher and flexes power at key times.

How does MSU win the regional? The momentum pendulum, as it has all year in the SEC, top to bottom, swings back away from the 9-0 loss to A&M at Hoover and toward the 8-1 run State enjoyed the final three SEC weekends. And the last time MSU was led to a Tallahassee regional with an interim head coach? It was 2018, look it up.

#4 Bethune Cookman

RPI* 199  SOS 171  Record vs Q1: 1-9 Q2: 0-0

Bethune Cookman enter the NCAA Tournament via an auto-bid as they won the SWAC Tournament sweeping through it as the 1 seed. The Wildcats come in with a 37-21 record and a 24-5 conference record and an RPI of 199 the second lowest RPI in the NCAA Tournament in front of Little Rock.

They have only one win inside the RPI top 100, a midweek win over USF. The Wildcats do come into the tournament on a six-game winning streak.

Bethune Cookman is led by the SWAC Coach of the Year, Jonathan Hernandez, while they also have Andrey Martinez, named Hitter of the Year in the SWAC, hitting .354 with 20 home runs and 63 RBIs. Their leading hitter is Jorge Rodriguez, who hit .357 with 14 home runs and 43 RBIs.

Pitching for the Wildcats is led by their Friday night starter, Edwin Sanchez, who has logged a 3.09 ERA this season while striking out 94 hitters. They also have Jean Carlos Zambrano, who won the SWAC Relief Pitcher of the Year, with a 4.25 ERA this season.

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*-Warren Nolan RPI