The Florida State Seminoles will play six games against No. 15 Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech. The Seminoles are coming off a 3-1 start to their season. They will look to build off a solid start to the year and see if they can continue to get their legs under them.
The first thing to watch is how the pitching staff comes back after a few ups and downs in the opening weekend. Louisville transfer Danielle Watson was impressive in her debut as a Seminole going 9.1 innings allowing just one earned run while striking out seven. Caylan Arnold does what she does best which is to give the Seminoles several solid appearances. She went seven innings in total, striking out six and posting a 2.00 ERA. Kathryn Sandercock will look to rebound after going six innings last week while allowing six earned runs; freshman Emma Wilson will also look to improve.
Can Elizabeth Mason stay hot after her three home run weekend that also racked up six RBI and gave her a 1.273 SLG? On the weekend, the Seminoles posted six homers and scored 26 runs off 24 hits. Not bad, but there is room for improvement from a team perspective. Not that they were cold, they are just capable of scoring more, so it should be interesting to see if the offensive, overall, takes a step forward.
Look for Sydney Sherrill to break through and put an abnormal week at the plate behind her. A Player of the Year watch player, Sherrill, had an atypical weekend going 2-13 at the plate. Even with that, she still knocked in three runs. Look for her to rebound and find her swing with six games in front of her. When she does, we suspect that Noles will start putting up some serious numbers.
Freshman Kalei Harding looked good in her debut, appearing in three games while starting one. The Murfreesboro, TN native ended the weekend with a robust .667 average and a 1.000 SLG. Having another bat to go to never hurts, and this season, like many other teams, the Seminoles have a lot of options. Let’s see if Harding can build off that solid start.
Finally, they face a top 15 team and should provide us with a good idea of where this team is currently. The Hokies are coming off a 3-0 start to their season, their bats were not on fire, but pitcher Keely Rochard was going 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 18 strikeouts over 14 innings of work. She will provide an excellent test for the Seminoles, and we are interested to see how it plays out.
The first game is today at 2:00 PM and can be watched here.
