Welcome back college baseball fans! What an exciting win we had yesterday! LSU was able to hang around with Hagen Smith and Arkansas, but in the end the bats and bullpen prevailed for us.
Vanderbilt was a cake walk as I expected, they have a very high chance to sweep at home this weekend! We are BACK today with another 2-leg pairing for everyone, and we are excited about this one!
Jamie Arnold Will Guide Us to Victory!
Florida State (21-3, 4-3 ACC) is hosting Louisville (16-10, 2-5 ACC) for game 2, at Dick Howser Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida. We were on them yesterday and they came through for us! Yesterday, Florida State finished with the 8-3 win after going down early.
Today I believe it will be a different story. In my opinion, it's always risky to take a team to win game 2 after winning game 1 of a series, but today the Seminoles go behind their top performing pitcher this year, Jamie Arnold.
Arnold has an incredible stat line to date. In 6 starts he has compiled 5 wins, 34 innings, 21 hits, THREE runs, 7 walks, 53 strikeouts, and an opposing batting average of just .172. He is only a sophomore, but he can pitch with the best of them.
It will be hard to keep these numbers going all year as the competition gets tougher, and I can see him giving some runs up today because Louisville can hit the ball. However, I believe he will keep the damage down to a minimum today.
At home, he boasts a wild 0.08 ERA, allowing just 1 run to Notre Dame in 21.2 innings at home. He went up against Clemson on the road and went 7 strong innings with 3 hits, 2 walks, 9 strikeouts, and 1 run allowed. He will show up today for the Noles!
The Seminoles Bats Stay Hot
In yesterday's game the Seminoles had another double digit hit game, ending at 10 scoring 8 runs. Florida State's offense has been on a tear this season, as they also could have taken 2 of 3 games from Clemson if their pitching had held up on the road. At home, the Seminoles will continue to swing hot bats.
They get a tougher test today in Louisville starter Evan Webster, who has a 2.48 ERA and 1.17 WHIP, but he does allow a .245 batting average against with 27 hits allowed in 29 innings. The Seminoles should be able to eventually get to him as they continue to bat .344 as a squad, behind Cam Smith (.477 avg, .513 ob%).
Florida State brings 6 regular batters and 8 overall that hit above .319. They are a talented bunch and are hard to keep off the bases with a .432 on-base percentage and a 94% success rate on stolen bases, swiping 32 of 34 bags.
When Chase Burns Pitches, We Ride!
This will undoubtedly be a great game today between two top 15 squads as #14 North Carolina (22-4 (7-2 ACC) visit #11 Wake Forest (17-7, 4-5 ACC). Both teams have great top end pitching, with North Carolina surprisingly having the second lowest ERA in the ACC at 3.90.
The Heels are on a 6-game winning streak, but that ends today at the hands of Chase Burns, at home. Burns is up there as the top pitcher in the nation. This season Wake has won every game behind Burns, in 6 starts he is 5-0, 1.93 ERA in 37 innings, allowing 19 hits, 8 runs, 12 walks, 68 strikeouts, and allowing .152 batting average.
His test won't be easy as he faces a talented offense batting .318 collectively, but he has faced tough tests up to this point in Duke, Virginia, and Louisville, and held his ground with 14, 13, and 12 strikeouts in each of those games. Count him in for 10 more strikeouts today. In his first three conference games he has gone 27 innings, 7 hits, 3 runs, 4 walks, and 39 strikeouts.
North Carolina does have their road issues as they dropped the first two games in Miami, and also lost both road games vs East Carolina. Wake's offense can score when they need to, they bat .279, so they aren't one of those teams batting .300, but they should be able to get enough done behind Burns today!
Today's Best Bet: Florida St ML + Wake Forest ML (-110) DraftKings
