Super Regional Preview: UConn @ Florida St
Super Regional Preview: UConn @ Florida St
Part 2/8: We're headed to Tallahassee!
Our second Super Regional series, starting this morning features the UConn Huskies and Florida St Seminoles, taking place in Tallahassee. UConn shocked the vast majority of the College Baseball World, including myself in manhandling both my dearest Duke Blue Devils, but also the regional host Oklahoma Sooners. I say manhandling because they truly did, held both offenses at bay, and scored enough runs against one of the best pitching staffs in the entire country. This is a team that was just 15-19 in non conference play this season, but rattled off a 17-4 conference record and rolled the Norman regional. They’re dangerous.
Anyone who covers college baseball knows damn well regular season stats don’t matter when you get to the postseason. Nothing I tell you statistically will be flashy about the Huskies, nor are they a flashy team. Nine former D3 players are on the Huskies’ roster, and 7 of those 9 played in the regional. UConn’s offense slashes just .274/.374/.465 as a group led by Korey Morton, Paul Tammaro, and Luke Broadhurst.
Korey Morton: .335/.380/.547, 11 HR, 48 RBI, 19 SBs
Paul Tammaro: .309/.444/.422, 4 HR, 37 RBI, 16 SBs
Luke Broadhurst: .288/.397/.561 14 HR, 52 RBI
UConn is a pesky ballclub, they won’t go away and they love to run the bases which is an edge that should give them some run support over the course of this series given the loaded Seminoles pitching staff they’ll be going up against.
On the mound, they showcase a slew of workhorses, showcasing 4 arms with over 59 IP on the season. With a 4.74 team ERA, the bullpen is solid and they showed in the regional they have solid depth and can shock you with a handful of different looks. Led by Stephen Quigley, Ian Cooke, Garrett Coe, and former D3 grinder Gabe Van Emon who strung together the legendary performance against the Sooners in the final game to push them to the Supers.
Stephen Quigley: 6-3, 3.59 ERA, 97.2 IP, 84 K, 24 BB, .270 B/AVG
Ian Cooke: 5-1, 3.97 ERA, 65.2 IP, 85 K, 25 BB, .214 B/AVG
Garrett Coe: 9-5, 4.70 ERA, 99.2 IP, 86 K, 39 BB, .243 B/AVG
Gabe Van Emon: 3-5, 5.88 ERA, 59.2 ERA
Don’t let the stats fool you, they only allowed 9 runs in 4 games in the Norman regional, 6 of them coming in their one loss. Like Evansville, this team will not roll over and FSU has to bring their A game to get to Omaha.
Besides Tennessee, Florida St may just be the toughest opponent remaining in the field. Rolling out 3 players we should see taken in Round 1 of the 2024 MLB Draft in Cam Smith, Jamie Arnold, and James Tibbs III.
The offense frontline by Smith and Tibbs, protected by studs in Jaime Ferrer, Marco Dinges, and Daniel Cantu. This Seminoles team can score at will with 7/9 qualified hitters hitting over .295, and has more than enough pitching to stymie rallies, the Huskies pitching has their hands full with this group.
Cam Smith: .396/.409/.682, 16 HR, 54 RBI
James Tibbs III: .362/.486/.781, 25 HR, 84 RBI
Jaime Ferrer: .312/.412/..624, 17 HR, 55 RBI
Marco Dinges: .325/.417/.587, 13 HR, 61 RBI
Daniel Cantu: .315/.410/.521, 8 HR, 40 RBI
The pitching staff is led by Jamie Arnold who very well could be the first starting pitcher off the board come July, but the brigade of bullpen arms to help out the rotation in Carson Dorsey, Brennen Oxford and John Abraham. There is a chance we see Cam Leiter, which could just be the nail in the coffin for a deep Omaha run.
Jamie Arnold: 11-3, 2.45 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 95.1 IP, 146 K, 22 BB, .212 B/AVG
Carson Dorsey: 6-4, 4.92 ERA, 1.58 WHIP, 64 IP, 75 K, 32 BB, .280 B/AVG
Brennen Oxford: 28 APP, 2.90 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 49.2 IP, 64 K, 22 BB, .238 B/AVG
John Abraham: 24 APP, 4.24 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 34 IP, 42 K, 29 BB, .157 B/AVG
It’s clear the Seminoles have the advantage, but you should absolutely tune into this series. Not just to watch the scrappy UConn Huskies take on one the best teams in the field, but you have to see this home field environment. It’s a madhouse, one of the best in the ACC outside of Clemson and is so damn fun to watch games. Part of me wants to say the magic has run out and this should be a 2 game sweep for the Seminoles, but don’t be surprised if this goes 3.
I’m still going with Florida St to take it, but I’ll be locked in on this series.