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Weather postpones FSU-Pitt opener; Series will start with Saturday doubleheader

On3 imageby: Corey Clark05/01/26Corey_Clark

Due to inclement weather in the area, the Florida State baseball team’s ACC series opener against Pitt was postponed on Friday.

The Seminoles and Panthers will now play a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The three-game series will conclude as scheduled on Sunday at 1 p.m. One ticket will be good for both games on Saturday.

First Report

With every series having a potential impact on postseason seeding, this weekend presents another important test for the Florida State baseball team.

It’s an ACC series, so they’re always tough. But when Mike Bell’s Pittsburgh Panthers roll into Dick Howser Stadium today for a three-game set against the Seminoles, the former FSU pitcher and pitching coach will be bringing in one of the best hitting teams in the conference.

Pitt is currently 28-15 overall and 10-11 in the ACC, and the Panthers are very much in contention for an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament. Clearly, a series win over the No. 14 Seminoles would go a long way in accomplishing that goal.

And Florida State head coach Link Jarrett knows what’s in store for his team — and specifically his pitching staff — this weekend.

“You look at the offensive numbers and what they’ve done with the base-on-balls, the strikeouts, and the power and the output and the home runs, the batting averages,” Jarrett said. “They know what they’re doing, and it’s an experienced team.”

And a good team. That’s playing well coming into the weekend.

The Panthers have won four games in a row, and while that might not sound like much, consider who those wins came against: They drummed No. 12 West Virginia 23-1 in the midweek and then followed that with a three-game sweep at home of No. 10 Virginia.

During that four-game stretch, the Panthers have won two games by run-rule and averaged 12 runs per contest.

Pitt is led by Lorenzo Carrier, who is currently hitting .393 with 16 home runs and 57 RBIs. Bell’s squad has homered 87 times as a team (compared to 52 for FSU) and is currently slugging .571 overall, which is good for second in the ACC — behind Georgia Tech — and fifth in the entire country.

The .321 team batting average is ninth best in the nation.

“They’re very, very, very talented and very good,” Jarrett said. “And it’s probably the hottest team in the country when you look at who they’ve beaten and how they’ve done it lately.”

Jarrett admitted this series is going to feel different for him than most. Obviously, it’s a big one for his team after getting swept by Stanford last weekend in Palo Alto, but it means a little more because of the guy in the other dugout.

Jarrett has known Bell for decades and considers him a very good friend. In fact, Jarrett pointed out, he actually lives in the house that Bell built when he was the pitching coach at Florida State.

“He was in it for five days and got the job at Pitt,” Jarrett said. “Now, that’s my home.”

And he reiterated multiple times how cool it is to be coaching against someone he has had such a long history with.

“When I was at Flagler College starting out and coaching the JV team and he’s at Florida Southern, we’re talking about strenght and conditioning and laundry and driving the van and gassing the vans and what do you look for in a pitcher at this level,” Jarrett said. “So, we’ve had conversations for the last 25 years that have brought us to the point that now we square off in games of this magnitude. …

“We fought to get through the industry to be in a position to where you’re coaching in these games in the ACC. On this stage. So, it’s really cool.”

Friday’s and Saturday’s games are both scheduled for 6 p.m., and Sunday’s game is set for 1 p.m. All three will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.

*Talk about this story with other die-hard Florida State baseball fans in the FSU Baseball Forum*

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