The Florida State Seminoles improved to 22-7 and 7-5 in ACC play with a series win over the Louisville Cardinals (19-8, 5-7 ACC) over Easter Weekend. The Seminoles have won three consecutive conference series after dropping the opening ACC series to Wake Forest; the Seminoles also moved to 18-2 at home this season.
Florida State will take on the Jacksonville Dolphins on Wednesday at Dick Howser Stadium, then will travel to Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech for three games.
As always, here are our five takeaways from the Seminoles’ series win over the Cardinals:
1. Van Eyk is pushing Pollock
Last week, we said that the coaching staff should consider moving Cole Sands back in the rotation and letting Drew Parrish have a shot at being the Friday night starter for the Seminoles. Sands turned in one of his best performances this year, so now Austin Pollock is the guy in the hot seat, so he will probably turn in a 7-inning outing next weekend at Georgia Tech.
But in all seriousness, with C.J. Van Eyk knocking on the door, and Pollock turning in just 7 2/3 innings pitched with nine earned runs allowed and nine walks surrendered over his last two starts, it is time to give another arm an opportunity in a rotation that has struggled.
Van Eyk has an ERA of 2.66 on the season in 20 1/3 innings pitched. The freshman right-handed pitcher is holding opposing hitters to a .164 average at the plate. Van Eyk was called upon on Saturday after Pollock’s early departure and held Louisville to just two hits over six innings and only allowed one earned run.
2. Florida State does not mind walking it off
Jonathan Foster played hero ball on Friday, hitting his second pinch-hit home run of the season — this one a 2-run walk-off homer against the Louisville bullpen. This is the Seminoles’ third walk-off of the season and the first that wasn’t delivered by Drew Mendoza. Florida State continues to show it can fight late in the game.
3. Salvatore is back in a groove at the plate
Junior Mike Salvatore has been swinging it well as of late. He turned in a .364 average over the weekend, and that is including his 0-for-3 performance on Saturday when the entire offense stalled. Salvatore drove in six runs against the Cardinals.
Before Saturday’s game, Salvatore was riding a 7-game hitting streak, and he also hit his first homer of the season in style in the third inning on Friday when he unloaded the bases for a grand slam. Hitting .245 on the year, Salvatore could be a considerable threat and added threat in the lineup if he continues to hit like he did against the Cardinals.
4. Could Foster swing his way into the lineup?
Alright, hang in there on this one, because the numbers are not convincing, but Jonathan Foster needs some more at-bats. Foster is just 3-for-14 on the season, but two of those hits have been pinch-hit home runs.
Foster did get the starting nod on Saturday, going 0-for-2 with two strikeouts, but he does have high upside if he can get into a groove at the dish. It is an experiment that could very well fail, but if he can find his swing, it would add another element to this Florida State lineup. We will only know if he gets the at-bats to figure it out.
5. “11” needs 10
Mike Martin inched ever closer to history after yet another series win. “11” is now just 10 wins away from passing the late Augie Garrido to become the all-time wins leader in college baseball. The earliest that could come would be at home against Stetson on April 18.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login