Tennessee baseball opens up play at the College World Series on Friday night where they’ll face Florida State. The Seminoles haven’t lost a game all postseason and have one of the best starting pitchers in the entire tournament.
The Vols lost their College World Series opener in each of their last two trips to Omaha and are looking to avoid that fate again this season.
Here’s everything you need to know about Tennessee’s matchup against Florida State.
More From RTI: Tennessee-Florida State Poised To Be ‘Clash of the Titans’ In Omaha
How To Watch — No. 1 Tennessee (55-12, 22-8 SEC) vs. No. 8 Florida State (47-15, 17-12 ACC)
- Game Time: 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT
- How To Watch: ESPN
- Stream Link: WatchESPN
- On the call: PxP: Mike Monaco, Color: Kyle Peterson and Chris Burke, Field: Kris Budden
What Tony Vitello Said About The Seminoles
On what stands out about FSU starter Jamie Arnold
“I don’t know. You’re kind of helping us out. We don’t know who they’re throwing. They’ve thrown out a few names at us. We’ll kind of sit back and relax and wait and kind of picking up where we left off with our last game here.
We went over to Creighton and just hit. So I guess that’s part of the deal. When we do know who we’re starting, we’ll prepare as best we see hit. The DH spot is one spot we’ve altered some guys. Otherwise, we’ve almost kind of cement and found our lineup, which is what you want to do towards the end of the year, but it could be a couple of lefties with really good stuff.
The one thing about Arnold from having seen him up in the Cape Cod, I watched a video because he played with one of our guys, he’s very similar to a kid I coached name Rick Segoni (phonetic). A real low slot and a really whippy arm.
I think when Florida State started their year the way they did, he had a lot to do with it. When you have a great pitcher like a Skenes, it helps you on that game day and then it helps on all the other days too for obvious reasons. We’ll be patient and see who we’re facing, and then we’ll prepare as best as we see fit.”
Projected Pitching Matchups
Tennessee LHP Chris Stamos (9 GS, 3-0, 4.02 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 31.1 IP, 35 K, 15 BB) vs. Florida State LHP Jamie Arnold (17 GS, 11-3, 2.77 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 100.2 IP, 155 K, 22 BB)
Latest Results
Tennessee:
- Won two out of three games against Evansville in Knoxville Super Regional
- Swept through the Knoxville Regional (wins over Northern Kentucky, Indiana and Southern Miss)
- Went 4-1 to win the SEC Tournament (wins over Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and LSU)
Florida State:
- Swept UConn in Tallahassee Super Regional
- Swept through Tallahassee Regional (wins over Stetson and UCF twice)
- Went 3-1 in ACC Tournament losing in the Championship game (wins over Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Virginia)
