Florida State baseball: Takeaways from Boston College and looking ahead at Florida Gators

Florida State baseball has hit a rough patch.

The Seminoles (12-8, 3-3 ACC) have lost five of their last six games after an 11-3 start to the season.

FSU is coming off a 1-4 week where it was swept by UCF in Orlando in a two-game, midweek series and Boston College took two of three games at Dick Howser Stadium last weekend.

The team has struggled on the mound and on defense but has also been hit hard in terms of injury.

DeAmez Ross (finger) returned for his first game since Feb. 25 on Sunday, but McGwire Holbrook (hand) remains out.

Wyatt Crowell (undisclosed) was scratched from his Saturday start, while Cam Smith (back) was a late lineup scratch in the opener.

"Personnel-wise, we are clearly not at 100%, but you still have to go play clean baseball," FSU head coach Link Jarrett said.

Career day:Ben Barrett has career day, leads Florida State baseball to 19-8 win over Boston College

Boston College series:Seminoles look to snap 3-game losing streak, face hot Boston College team

Switch-hitting:Inside the transformation Colton Vincent into a switch-hitting star

The schedule doesn't lighten up moving forward for the Seminoles.

They play No. 2 Florida at 7 p.m. Tuesday at home before playing seven straight games away from Dick Howser against Virginia (March 24-26), Florida in Jacksonville (March 28) and Miami (March 31-April 2).

Jarrett, who is in his 11th season as a head coach, is working on turning the team's play of late around.

"The last couple of days, it's been the ability to refresh and come out and play a good energetic game but you have to let the frustration of it fuel you a little bit so that you're not repeating mistakes and that you do have some intensity within what you're trying to do," Jarrett said.

"Whether it's a better intensity at the plate with the quality of the intent on the fastball and hopefully the recognition of the secondary pitch.

"I want them to use how they feel and how I feel. They need to be learning and try to put some of it away. Let the frustration let you become a little bit more focused and intense on what you're trying to do."

Here are two takeaways from the series loss to Boston College, as well as a look ahead at Tuesday's opponent, the Gators.

Florida State baseball: 5 Seminoles players to watch opening weekend and the 2023 season

Starting pitching questions

The starting question for the Seminoles continues to plague the team a month into the season.

None of the three starters over the weekend lasted more than three innings.

Friday starter Jackson Baumeister lasted just three innings, allowing five earned runs on six hits in a 19-8 victory. On Saturday, Crowell was scratched leading up to the game, with freshman Jamie Arnold starting in his place.

Arnold, who has been working out of the bullpen and wasn't stretched out, allowed three earned runs on three hits in three innings on 64 pitches.

On Sunday, Carson Montgomery pitched just 2 ⅔ innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits. He walked three and struck out two, while also throwing three wild pitches, which included a bouncer to the backstop which scored a run.

Montgomery is 0-1 on the season with a 6.65 ERA and has struggled the most of all the starters.

"(Pitching coach) Chuck (Ristano) said that the bullpen that Carson threw in the middle of the week was the best one he had ever seen," Jarrett said. "So there were some expectations that we had made some progress - clearly it wasn't as good in the game as it was in his training. It was unfortunate because today was a day we needed a good durable outing and we didn't get it."

Errors doom Seminoles

Florida State committed four errors Sunday, leading to seven of the eight runs Boston College scored to be unearned runs.

Senior Nander De Sedas drew the start at third with Smith out and committed three errors himself.

His three errors all led to the Eagles scoring runs. Catcher Colton Vincent also picked up an error on an errant throw to second on a stolen base attempt.

FSU's .961 fielding percentage ranks 14th out of 14 teams in the ACC so far in 2023.

"The guys are clearly frustrated; I'm frustrated," Jarrett said. "When you make those kinds of defensive mistakes all over the place it becomes insurmountable unless your offense is so dynamic that you can overcome some of the miscues and clearly that was not the case.

"They outplayed us."

Scouting the Florida Gators

While Jarrett acknowledged the game against the Gators being a big one, he also said the team has bigger issues than who their opponent is.

"It doesn't matter who we are playing, whether it's the Yankees or the local 10-year-olds, we have to go play the game better," Jarrett said.

"We played at 11 a.m., so the good thing is that this is over with so maybe we can use tomorrow as a day to get guys more suited in the positions they are playing right now."

FSU will need to be on top of its game against UF. Florida is off to an 18-4, including a 2-1 SEC record.

The Gators are second in the nation with 46 home runs and fifth in batting average (.339). Jac Caglianone is tied with Wake Forest's Brock Wilken with 13 home runs to lead the nation.

Josh Rivera has added 10 home runs and leads the team in batting average (.418), on-base percentage (.520), OPS (1.355) and stolen bases (6 of 7).

Seven of the regulars for UF have an OPS over .864.

FSU is likely to miss the trio of weekend starters for Florida − Brandon Sproat, Caglianone and Hurston Waldrep.

Tyler Nesbitt, who has a 1.17 ERA in 7 ⅔ innings started a weekday game for the Gators last week against North Florida.

Nesbitt will start against FSU freshman Ben Barrett.

Florida State vs. Florida

When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.

Where: Dick Howser Stadium

TV/Radio: ACC Network/100.7 FM

Reach Ehsan Kassim at ekassim@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Ehsan_Kassim. You can also follow our coverage on Facebook (NoleSports) and Instagram (tlhnolesports).

No one covers the ‘Noles like the Tallahassee Democrat. Subscribe using the link at the top of the page and never miss a moment

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU baseball is moving on from Boston College, ready for Florida