Things started about as well as Florida State could’ve hoped to begin the Tallahassee Super Regional against UConn, with the Seminoles flashing the leather in the field before piling on the runs in the first three innings. But head coach Link Jarrett isn’t burying the Huskies just yet.
Speaking with the ESPN broadcast during the top of the 4th inning and his squad holding a 8-0 lead while on defense, Jarrett explained that he wasn’t ready to chalk up Friday’s contest as a win, despite the hot start.
“They pitch. UConn really, really pitches well,” Jarrett said after his team put up eight runs on eight hits in three innings. “There’s no wiggle room and our guys had a game plan coming in and clearly executed it. They’re tough. Like the pitchability and the management of the zone and the things that UConn’s staff does, this is far from over. And I saw it out of the gate. But our guys are talented and they were very focused coming out of that locker room to begin the game and you could see it.”
Jarrett did give some love to his defense for starting the game strong in the top of the 1st inning, with Alex Lodise handling a ground ball for the first out before Max Williams delivered a web gem catch on a ball driven to the left-center gap.
“And defensive plays, I thought — Lodise with the first ground ball of the game, not easy, nice play, then Max to lay out in the gap — that’s not what you wanted. But the game started defensively with some nice plays,” Jarrett said.
And on the bump, Florida State turned to lefty Carson Dorsey to get the start. As Jarrett spoke with the ESPN broadcast, Dorsey and the defense gave up their first run of the Super Regional. But the offense quickly got it back in the bottom of the 4th inning.
Through four innings of work, Dorsey had thrown 65 pitches and given up the one run on one hit.
“Well you’re looking at a pretty dynamic arm action and good stuff,” Jarrett said. “Now, quite frankly the stuff, right now, velocity-wise on some of the pitches isn’t what we’ve seen it function at before but you have a lively fastball that has that climbing feeling through the zone and he’s starting to get to the breaking ball, the curveball. You see the slower curveball in the low to mid 70s and then the harder slider. Some times he’s gets that up into the mid-80s. Right now it’s in the 79-82 range and then he’ll get to the changeup eventually. Once [pitching coach] Micah [Posey] starts feeling that’s a necessity, we’ll get there. But it’s a lot coming at you. And he’s got a long way to go, clearly pleased with the at-bats. Our guys appeared locked in out of the gate for this and pleased with the at bats. Long way to go. Good team in the other dugout there.”
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