After a strong showing from No. 10 Florida State baseball last week, including a combined no-hitter and a top-10 series win, the Seminoles (19-4, 5-1 ACC) will now look to even the season series vs. the Florida Gators in Jacksonville.
Florida State will try to continue its recent streak of dominance, with six of its last 12 games featuring run-rule wins.
Florida (19-6, 3-3 SEC), who was swept this past weekend by the Alabama Crimson Tide, took the first matchup in a 6-3 win over FSU on March 10 in Gainesville.
The pitching matchup will feature FSU left-hander Cooper Whited (1-0, 3.12 ERA) facing off against UF right-hander Russell Sandefer (0-1, 5.40 ERA).
As a team, Florida State is hitting .304 with 34 home runs, 52 doubles, 130 walks and 205 runs scored. The pitching staff has a 3.53 ERA with 250 strikeouts and 86 walks in 191.0 innings. The Gators, meanwhile, pace the SEC in shutouts thrown (five) and sacrifice flies (19), sitting second and sixth in the country in those categories respectively, and rank 15th nationally in strikeouts per nine at 11.2.
Last year’s matchup in Jacksonville featured a historic performance, with Alex Lodise believed to be the first player in college or professional baseball history to complete a cycle with a walk-off grand slam to earn FSU an 8-4 win over the Gators.
Florida State leads the all-time series 135-130-1, though the Gators are 38-23 under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
FSU vs. Florida: How to watch, stream, pitching matchup
- Date: Tuesday, March 24
- Time: 6 p.m. ET
- Pitching matchup: FSU Jr. LHP Cooper Whited (1-0, 3.12 ERA) vs. UF Jr. RHP Russell Sandefer (0-1, 5.40 ERA)
- How to watch: SEC Network+
- How to listen: WFLA 100.7 FM in Tallahassee; seminoles.leanplayer.com everywhere
Gator hitters to watch out for
- Jr. SS Brendan Lawson: Lawson leads Florida in every slash category with a .380/.585/.915 batting line, 10 home runs, 29 RBI and six steals. He has drawn 27 free passes against just 16 strikeouts and leads the SEC with the fourth-best on-base percentage in the country, also having homered in the first meeting between the two rivals.
- Soph. INF Ethan Surowiec: The only Gator to start all 25 games, the sophomore is .308/.432/.484 with 10 extra-base hits and 24 RBI on the season.
- Fr. OF Cash Strayer / Fr. OF Jacob Kendall: Both freshman outfielders had two RBI apiece in the first meeting against FSU, combining for four of the Gators’ six runs in the 6-3 win.
