Florida State got off to another good start in the first half of their second super regional game against UConn after winning by 20 runs the day before.
At one break in between innings with Florida State having just taken the lead, head coach Link Jarrett spoke with the broadcast and was first asked about his starting pitcher, Jamie Arnold, who gave up a pair of runs in the first but otherwise kept a lid on UConn through four innings.
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Jarrett explained that Arnold just puts so much time and effort into his game off the field to make for such good starts.
“All aspects of managing what it’s like to be an elite pitcher — the arm care, the day to day, like, he gets to go out there once a week and do what you see now. But how you handle the other six days makes this one day better.”
Arnold is one of those guys who’s just always in the facility working on his game and his body.
“I think that’s what you’ve seen, strength and conditioning, stuff he does with his arm care, the training room, the bullpen work, the stuff he does in the pitching lab. You’ve seen a guy really a take a huge stride. Even last inning, you started to see that velocity, I think you saw some sixes, which we didn’t see out of the gate, so clearly, just a very talented guy.”
Next, Jarrett was asked about another terrific player in the Seminole dugout, James Tibbs, who the FSU coach says was a little bit off in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
“Well, with a hitter like that that’s so complete, when he feels off, it’s difficult for them to just put it away and reset. It was a tough weekend for him last weekend but when you’re that good at it and you don’t feel quite right, it’s difficult for somebody to manage that.
Link Jarrett continued, breaking down why it’s not so easy to stay in rhythm in the postseason.
“So, worked so hard and so diligently to get the timing and the feel back, and it looks like he’s back on track. You know, you don’t have the midweek game, so you have a little bit different rhythm to what’s going on, and he started to let the ball travel.”
But this weekend, Tibbs is starting to look like the batter he has been for most of the year, per Jarrett.
“I think the ball he hit yesterday in his first at bat was a really well hit fly ball to left center. Then, the one he just hit out, you can start to see his timing work, and I think the base hit he had earlier in the game was a changeup.
“So you start to see him manage the field and time fastballs and adjust to the secondary stuff, then you know that he feels better about what he’s doing.”
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