Baseball Insider: Emotions run high; FSU mulls pitching options for Regional finals

Florida State baseball coach Link Jarrett couldn’t have planned out the Seminoles’ first two games of their NCAA Tallahassee Regional any better had he written the script.

Two games, two wins, and just three pitchers used.

Now, however, comes the hard part.

After his top two starting pitchers, Jamie Arnold and Carson Dorsey, delivered outstanding performances in leading Florida State to victories against Stetson and UCF, the ‘Noles will have to piece things together on the mound today to record one more win.

When asked after Saturday night’s 5-2 victory over UCF, Jarrett said he was leaning toward starting junior right-hander Conner Whittaker against the winner of today’s elimination game between UCF and Stetson. But that decision wasn’t quite set in stone.

“Probably heading towards Whittaker,” Jarrett said. “I haven’t really had enough time to sit down with him, but that was kind of the thought, was Whitt. And he’s had outings that have progressed in pitch count, and now he’s had good rest.”

Earlier this season, Whittaker would have been the obvious choice to start one of the regional games. But other than Arnold’s impressive season, very little has gone according to plan for Florida State’s pitching staff in 2024.

Whittaker (4-0, 5.13 ERA) missed over a month with an arm injury before returning to action on May 11. The longest he has gone in any outing since then was 2 2/3 innings (49 pitches) in the ACC Tournament against Wake Forest.

Friday night starter Cam Leiter sustained an injury of his own and hasn’t pitched in more than two months. The Seminoles also have been without one of their most talented relievers, Ben Barrett, for much of the year.

So while Whittaker will likely get the starting nod for today’s regional championship round, which is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., there’s no way to know how long he will last. And who will come in after him.

The good news is FSU’s pitching has been so dominant through the first two games that every arm in the bullpen but one — senior Brennen Oxford — is fully rested and available.

Oxford closed out both of the first two games, but even he hasn’t had to do much heavy lifting. He retired one batter to seal the deal in Friday’s regional opener against Stetson, and he threw the final two innings Saturday against UCF.

That means besides Whittaker, the Seminoles have five relievers available who have made more than 20 appearances this season, and a few others who have made more than 10. And none of them have pitched since last weekend.

“Probably the most rested we’ve been this year,” Jarrett said. “The nice thing about what he (Arnold) has done and what Dorsey did yesterday is it shrank what we needed to do in the bullpen. So you’re probably further along with depth in the ‘pen than you would expect to be two games into this against the teams that we’ve played.”

The top options after Whittaker likely will be freshman right-hander John Abraham (5-1, 4.36 ERA), junior right-handers Connor Hults (1-1, 4.15) and Joe Charles (1-0, 6.91), and senior lefty Andrew Armstrong (5-0, 6.98).

Stetson and UCF will square off at noon, with the winner advancing to face Florida State in the championship round and the loser being eliminated.

FSU needs just one more win to advance to the Super Regionals, while the winner of the elimination game would have to beat the Seminoles twice to move forward.

Florida State third baseman Cam Smith is fired up while running the bases following his home run Saturday night against UCF. (Ben Spicer/Warchant)

Emotional Rescue

The 2024 Florida State baseball team has thrived on playing with emotional all season, so it was no surprise when the Seminoles showed some extra exuberance at various moments Saturday night.

They were playing before a crowd of well over 5,000 fans, the game was under the lights in prime time, and they got some tremendous individual efforts.

Arnold strutted off the mound to close out several dominant innings, shaking his head after dismissing UCF batters with some of his 12 strikeouts and waving his arms to the crowd. And third baseman Cam Smith played to the crowd and his teammates with his jaunt around the bases following a fouth-inning home run.

He tore off his helmet at one point and glared into the UCF dugout on his way from third to home.

“At first I thought it was a sac fly,” Smith said of his towering fly ball, which made it over the fence in right field. “That kind of caught me by surprise, so that’s why I kind of went crazy. I didn’t even know what I did. I forgot. But I know I went crazy.”

“It helps when the fans are getting me going too,” Arnold said of his celebrations. “It’s always big when you get a punch-out. And when it’s to end an inning, you can kind of emo a little bit. And that’s what I do. And I enjoy it.”

Jarrett said the umpires issued a warning to FSU’s dugout about directing their celebrations specifically toward their opponents, but even the Seminoles’ head coach said he likes the way his players feed off of the crowd.

Jarrett also appreciates when the Dick Howser Stadium fans reciprocate, which they did several times, including after multiple replay reviews that went UCF’s way and numerous questionable strike-ball calls.

“I love it. This is the best,” Jarrett said. “The fans are in every pitch of it. Every pitch. And they’re on every aspect of every pitch, and it helps. In some respects, it makes my management of things better because I’ve got [thousands] of people voicing an opinion that sometimes I don’t need to voice.”

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