Last year, to begin the 2025 season, the Florida State baseball team outscored JMU 25-2 with two shutouts in three games. A year before, FSU won both of its opening games against Butler by a combined 20 runs.
The start of the 2026 campaign did not look like that.
Link Jarrett’s team found itself in what he told the local Tallahassee media was a “grinder” on Friday night and needed a three-run eighth, aided by a balk, to pull away from the Dukes to secure a 5-1 win. A day later, the Noles trailed early
in the contest, forcing pitching coach Micah Posey to pull RHP Bryson Moore after just 1.2 innings. Moore was the scheduled Sunday starter but filled in for LHP Trey Beard, who was scratched due to an illness.
While the Seminoles wound up pulling away for a 16-5 win Saturday ahead of Sunday’s weather cancellation, it was still a weekend where FSU had a few issues to to work through.
The early part of the season may not look like the last two, where the Noles took double-digit win streaks to begin the season deep into March. With the number of talent losses Jarrett needs to replace from the 2025 team, the lineup and pitching staff may be a revolving door. In fact, with a difficult non-conference schedule, the early part of the season should be viewed more through the lens of survive and advance rather than needing to run-rule every opponent they face. So, was the start to the season gorgeous? No. But are the Seminoles in a position to continue to build and be competitive in Arlington next weekend? Absolutely.
Three up:
#1: Florida State bullpen
After an offseason full of addressing bullpen concerns, Link Jarrett and Micah Posey’s commitment to fixing their Achilles’ heel paid off in the opening weekend.
On Friday night, John Abraham entered the sixth for Wes Mendes and did his job while receiving no help from his defense. He struck out the side in the sixth, albeit allowing one run, and picked up the first two outs of the seventh before giving way to Brodie Purcell. While his command wavered at times during his first outing, the stuff was obvious as he paired a mid-90s fastball with a hard breaking ball. It was an encouraging outing to begin the year after the ups and downs Abraham experienced a season ago. However, the main story out of the ‘pen in the season opener was Purcell, a transfer from USC. The righty entered the seventh with a runner on second in a 2-1 game with two outs and struck out the JMU batter on three pitches. In the ensuing inning, the Dukes had a runner on third with two outs, and yet again, Purcell sat down the JMU batter on strikes to retire the side. The USC transfer finished the game off in the ninth, earning the save and preserving the bullpen for Saturday by going 2.1 shutout innings with four strikeouts.
Purcell’s length loomed large on Saturday after Bryson Moore only went 1.2 innings. Just like Purcell, Cade O’Leary entered into a messy inning in the second and punched out the JMU batter on three pitches to strand the runners. O’Leary looked sharp in his first two innings of work, and was probably left in too long as he allowed baserunners later in his outing. LHP Cooper Whited relieved O’Leary and went two scoreless frames with three strikeouts, a welcome sight given how thin the FSU bullpen is on the left side. Finally, Cole Stokes finished the game off with a shutout seventh as he struck out two while pumping 98.
Although four of the five relievers this weekend were right-handed, they each present a different profile and give Jarrett options out of the bullpen. Without strong relievers in both games, especially on Friday, the season could have started and felt much different than it does right now.
Jarrett on Abraham and Purcell:
“I thought Abraham threw the ball pretty well. (He threw) some different stuff. The curveball was good…Purcell, you can see the unique profile with the release height and the combination of that with the carry on the fastball’s pretty unique. He had that going. The changeup was good.”
#2: Lineup depth
This whole column could just be about Myles Bailey. The Florida State first baseman made no mistake with the first pitch of his season, a no-doubt blast to right field that went 425 feet, a distance Jarrett believed traveled further. But while Bailey had a mammoth weekend, that is expected. The rest of the lineup was the question mark coming into the season, and a few players provided the head coach with answers.
Noah Sheffield did not even start on Opening Day, but may have been the breakout star of the weekend. The son of former MLB great Gary Sheffield provided the knockout punch in the eighth inning on Friday, a pinch-hit single that drove in two to give the Noles an insurmountable 5-1 lead. Jarrett rewarded his play with a start on Saturday, where Sheffield went 3-4 with a double, a walk and an RBI with four runs scored. Considering how up-in-the-air the lineup is right now, the second-year infielder seems like a sure bet to see the field more often.
Along with Sheffield, a couple of other program returners provided a pop in the FSU lineup, including Brody DeLamielleure, who went yard in each game this series, and Cal Fisher, who was the only Seminole to reach base in both games this weekend besides Bailey.
Amongst the transfers, Brayden Dowd made the largest impression with a 3-3 day on Saturday with a double, a homer, two walks, three RBI and five runs scored. The Gage Harrelson comparisons with slightly more power are easy to see.
As mentioned, the lineup will be a work in progress to begin the year, but there are pieces around Bailey and potential at the top of the order to be a potent bunch as the season wears on.
Jarrett on why he chose to pinch-hit with Noah Sheffield in the eighth inning on Friday:
“It took me until Noon (on Friday) to figure out what I wanted to do…It just seemed like a gut maneuver that I wanted to make to give him a shot there because I trust him.”
#3: Emotional makeup
The last two Florida State baseball teams have been defined by their response, and it appears that this group has the same ability. On Friday, Wes Mendes pitched with a runner in scoring position in four of his five innings, yet did not allow a run. Instead of letting go of the rope, he practiced “self-contained relief,” as Jarrett loves to call it, to work deep into the game and put up a performance worthy of a Friday night starter. As mentioned earlier, Sheffield did not start in the season-opener, but did not sulk, and delivered when his number was called.
On Saturday, the Seminoles found themselves trailing for the first time this season after a three-run top half of the second, and their starter chased after 1.2 innings of work. Florida State responded with a four-run home half of the second, including a three-run blast from Dowd to regain the lead and wrestle back control of the game.
These may be just minor examples against a team picked to finish 13th out of 14th in its conference, but getting into adverse situations this early in the season and working out of them will be beneficial in the long run.
Jarrett on Mendes working around runners on base:
“If something has stung you and you got punched, you have to regroup yourself and execute and repeat, and he did that.”
Three down:
#1: Saturday starter
Bryson Moore found himself in a difficult situation on Saturday. Although all of his bullpens in the preseason have been on that day, he was named as the Sunday arm, with Trey Beard announced as second in the rotation behind Mendes. Unfortunately, according to Jarrett, Beard was ill and scratched from his start, delaying his debut as a Seminole. That thrust Moore into a spot start where he struggled with command. After stranding two runners on base in the first inning, the first two batters of the second reached scoring position. Moore seemed to work his way out of the jam, picking up outs on the next two batters he faced. However, his outing spiraled, and two walks and a double later, Moore was chased after 1.2 innings, tagged with three runs and two Dukes still standing in scoring position.
The main issue for Moore was command, as he walked two and hit another, while only facing 12 batters. The double that knocked him out of the game was a dead-red heater over the heart of the plate, as he did not want to walk a third-straight hitter. Hopefully, as the UVA transfer gets more comfortable in Tallahassee, he will harness his stuff and complete what should be a strong three-man rotation.
Jarrett on Moore’s outing:
“I thought he was sharp early. He kind of pitched his way out of some stuff. His breaking ball was OK. Everything softened a little bit as it deepened.”
#2: Defense:
Part of the reason Moore’s outing got away from him and Abraham allowed a run was poor infield defense. On Friday, in the sixth, a chopper squeaked through the infield, which should have resulted in at least one out, possibly two. It seemed Chase Williams threw out the runner trying to reach third, but either way, it was concerning to see a miscommunication between the shortstop and second baseman in the first game without Alex Lodise and Drew Faurot up the middle. On Saturday, Moore’s outing extended after the Seminoles did not get the out at first on what should have been a sacrifice bunt. Although Jarrett’s team committed only one error on the weekend, there were multiple plays that felt like they were made last year, but not this weekend, causing alarm over one of Jarrett’s biggest worries heading into the year.
Jarrett on FSU’s defense on Saturday:
“We made some tactical defense mistakes there that really allowed the (second) inning to open up and affected Moore’s ability to extend.”
