Super Regional Preview: Florida State-Florida

Hosted by Florida (No. 1 national seed) • McKethan Stadium • Gainesville, Fla.

Follow the action on Twitter: @GatorZoneBB | @FSU_Baseball

Florida State (40-20) at No. 1 Florida (50-13)

Saturday
6 p.m. (ESPN2)
Sunday
6 p.m. (ESPN2 or ESPNU)
Monday
*1 p.m./4 p.m./7 p.m. (ESPN2) or 7 p.m. (ESPNU)

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Florida State

Coach: Mike Martin
Postseason History: 15th super regional appearance (second straight). Seeking 22nd trip to Omaha.
Postseason Route: No. 1 seed in Tallahassee Regional. Won in three games, beating South Alabama in the final.

Pos.	Name	Bats	Yr.	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB
C	Cal Raleigh	B	Fr.	.308	.412	.525	10	50	38	43	1
1B	Dylan Busby	R	So.	.328	.378	.613	14	55	17	61	11
2B	Matt Henderson	B	Jr.	.229	.423	.280	0	14	45	29	4
3B	John Sansone	R	Sr.	.374	.459	.585	9	65	27	30	8
SS	Taylor Walls	B	So.	.367	.488	.532	6	45	56	42	14
OF	Jackson Lueck	B	Fr.	.408	.523	.617	4	35	21	32	2
OF	Ben DeLuzio	R	Jr.	.243	.354	.344	1	25	25	33	15
OF	Tyler Holton	L	Fr.	.250	.419	.583	2	6	3	8	0
DH	Quincy Nieporte	R	Jr.	.302	.355	.448	5	38	11	12	2
Pos.	Name	Throws	Yr.	W	L	SV	ERA	IP	BB	SO	AVG
SP	Drew Carlton	R	So.	7	3	0	4.36	85	23	71	.272
SP	Cole Sands	R	Fr.	6	6	0	4.21	66	31	46	.258
SP	Tyler Holton	L	Fr.	3	3	1	2.92	62	32	78	.234
RP	Jim Voyles	R	Jr.	6	1	2	2.50	50	18	48	.181

Scouting Report
(anonymous coach breaks down the Seminoles)

“Their offense is good. John Sansone, I mean, he wasn’t a heralded kid out of high school. He was a good player. He’s made himself—I mean, their system, Florida State’s system is different than almost anybody in our league. They just do a really good job developing hitters. Every year, you get a freshman like Walls last year, and you think, ‘Man, he’s an out. He stinks.’ A year later, he’s arguably the best player on the field.

“Their offense is really good, and Dylan Busby is going really, really good. I wouldn’t want to pitch to that dude right now. That’s for sure. When we played him, he was a free out. That’s just kind of the ebbs and flows of the season. But he’s in a really, really good spot right now.

“On the mound, they’re really generic. But they all throw strikes, and they all throw multiple pitches for strikes. They’re kind of like Miami in that regard. I hope for our league that they beat Florida, but I don’t see how their pitching is going to match up with Florida.

“The thing I worry about the most is the bullpen, to be able to strike you out. They just don’t have a guy who can do that. And against Florida with how athletic and good they are, that’s a tall task. And scoring seven or eight runs is going to be really hard with (Florida’s) pitching, so they’ve got be able to win a game 4-2. Who’s going to be able to hold Florida to two (runs)? That’s going to be tough. Just watching them in the ACC tournament, it looks like they pitched better in terms of strikes, but they don’t have any stuff that’s ‘Wow.’

“When that ACC tournament started, I’m thinking to myself, ‘they’re like the seventh- or eighth-best team in our league.’ And you leave there, and you’re like, ‘Oh, geez, maybe they’re the best or second-best team in the league.’ (Martin) just does a really good job there.

“Cal Raleigh, I think, is the guy, if they’re gonna do something that’s gonna be different. If they can get Cal Raleigh to do something, along with Busby and Sansone, I think they’re in business. The one thing they haven’t done, the knock, is they’ve been bad on the road. So you wonder how that goes.”

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Florida

Coach: Kevin O’Sullivan
Postseason History: Eighth super regional appearance (second straight). Seeking 10th trip to Omaha.
Postseason Route: No. 1 seed in Gainesville Regional. Won in three games, beating Georgia Tech in the final.

Pos.	Name	Bats	Yr.	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB
C	Mike Rivera	R	So.	.262	.367	.452	9	47	27	24	0
1B	Peter Alonso	R	Jr.	.368	.464	.632	12	55	29	30	2
2B	Deacon Liput	L	Fr.	.277	.375	.411	3	34	34	43	13
3B	Jonathan India	R	Fr.	.310	.376	.458	4	40	21	38	13
SS	Dalton Guthrie	R	So.	.306	.371	.372	1	22	24	25	8
OF	Danny Reyes	R	Fr.	.273	.283	.455	1	11	1	6	1
OF	Buddy Reed	B	Jr.	.256	.358	.397	4	32	37	58	24
OF	Nelson Maldonado	R	Fr.	.272	.368	.429	6	30	25	34	6
DH	J.J. Schwarz	R	So.	.292	.404	.451	6	54	44	49	2
Pos.	Name	Throws	Yr.	W	L	SV	ERA	IP	BB	SO	AVG
SP	Logan Shore	R	Jr.	11	0	0	2.44	92	15	80	.223
SP	A.J. Puk	L	Jr.	2	3	0	3.21	70	31	95	.195
SP	Alex Faedo	R	So.	13	1	0	3.19	93	18	117	.221
RP	Shaun Anderson	R	Jr.	3	0	13	1.05	43	6	56	.195

Scouting Report
(anonymous coaches break down the Gators)

“They’re young in some spots and they probably haven’t had the repeat performances from Schwarz and a couple of guys in the lineup, but I think they’re the most complete team we’ve played all year long. It starts on the mound and defense.

“It’s going to be tough sledding against that staff. I mean, it’s got to be the best pitching staff in country, hands down. You’ve got to keep it a low-scoring game and then get hits when it’s time to get hits. With Shore, I don’t know if there’s another pitcher in the country you’d want right now to win a game. If you could pick anybody to win a game, it would probably be Shore. If you could pick one of the three guys (to face), it might be Puk. Because I think Faedo has the best slider in the country. If you’ve got a strong lefthanded hitting lineup, I don’t know if it gives you an advantage, but it kind of helps, especially against Faedo. But his slider is so good it gives lefties problems. The type of arms they run out with (Dane) Dunning, (Brady) Singer and (Kirby) Snead. It’s going to be tough sledding scoring runs against them, so you’ve got to really pitch against them.

“I think Alonso becomes the wild card for them because he changes the complexion of the offense so much. When he’s not in there, you saw how they struggled against (Louisiana State). At the end of the day, I think, it’s the most complete team. Because even if some of those guys didn’t have the same years offensively they did last year they’re still those guys. It’s still Buddy Reed. We’re not talking about some slouch. I mean, it’s Buddy Reed. And Schwarz is still going to strike fear into you every time he steps into the box. I know he didn’t hit 18 home runs again, but he can hit a home run at any given moment. If there is a weakness, that’s what I think it might be. But even then, with Alonso back it’s tough. They’ve got a lot of veteran guys mixed in with the younger guys.

“To beat them, you’ve got to keep them from scoring, because you’re not going to score very many. (O’Sullivan) just has too many options at his disposal. If somebody comes in there and he struggles, he can get him out right away. Nobody has more toys in the bullpen than he does. Nobody. It’s crazy.”