FSU Baseball enters postseason looking for strong finish to massive turnaround

Link Jarrett wasn’t in the best mood this weekend to try to recap his FSU baseball team’s impressive regular season.

Yes, Florida State has racked up 39 wins one year after suffering more losses than any team in program history. And yes, the Seminoles seem like locks to host the first NCAA Regional in Tallahassee since 2018.

They are also still very much in the mix for a Top 8 national seed.

But after losing 11-10 in the series finale against Georgia Tech on Saturday, allowing five runs in the last two innings, the FSU head coach admitted he wasn’t in the best frame of mind to take a look back at all his team has accomplished.

He tried his best anyway.

“I don’t want [the loss] to tarnish how I felt about what they did in the regular season,” Jarrett said. “It’s tough. I’m proud of the team. What we just went through this season, 26 new players, what we went through starting last Thursday [with travel issues] … for them to come and win this series, win those first two games convincingly, the way they played, should overshadow how I feel right now.

“But you can tell it’s not. And I didn’t want that to tarnish their view of things either. We had guys battle through.”

The reality is the 2024 Florida State baseball team has pulled off arguably the biggest turnaround in the history of the program. After going 23-31 in Jarrett’s first season, the Seminoles are 39-14 entering the postseason.

And they did it even after losing two of their three weekend starters to injury.

The ‘Noles now get ready for the postseason, starting this week with the ACC Tournament in Charlotte, and they’re starting to get healthier on the mound. One of those weekend starters, Conner Whittaker, has made appearances each of the last two weekends and pitched two scoreless innings on Friday.

The other injured starter, Cam Leiter, could be coming back as well.

Jarrett said there’s a chance the former Friday night starter could pitch this week in Charlotte. And if everything goes well, he could be available in some capacity for regional play the following weekend.

“He keeps sending me pictures of Mariano Rivera walking out of the bullpen,” Jarrett said of Leiter. “That sounds great. He’s getting there. And you’ve seen enough of him to know what he’s wanting to do right now. But we have to be responsible with how we try to build him up. Just like Whittaker.

“Can Leiter get out there and throw an inning? And it really doesn’t matter what inning. It’s just dynamic stuff that can help you in whatever inning you choose. … He’s trending in that direction.”

Florida State is currently No. 8 in the latest RPI.

The Seminoles will play at least two games in the ACC Tournament this week. They’ll have a rematch with Georgia Tech on Tuesday at 3 p.m. and then battle Virginia, which is No. 12 in the RPI, on Friday at 11 a.m. To advance to the tournament semifinals, FSU will have to win both games.

*Talk about this story with other die-hard Florida State baseball fans in the FSU Baseball Forum*

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