We’ve reached the halfway point of the college baseball season, and all of the usual suspects are scattered among D1Baseball’s top-25 rankings. For Florida State, they’ve been getting help from perhaps the best pair of pitchers in the nation. Junior Jamie Arnold and redshirt junior Joey Volini have helped the Seminoles to third place in the ACC and the ninth-best ranking in the nation.
Star Southpaws Support Seminoles’ Successful Season
Over the weekend against no. 25 Virginia Tech, Volini opened the three-game series with a solid seven innings, giving up only one run, two hits, and striking out five batters.
Later that day, Arnold toed the slab and also pitched seven innings of one-run ball, punching out nine Tech batters while only walking two. Florida State won both games en route to a sweep.
Arnold has continued his ascent as one of the best pitchers in the ACC. Coming off an 11-3 season with a 2.98 ERA, the Tampa native has lowered his ERA by more than a half-run to 2.40, which is good for seventh-best in the conference. With a meager .177 batting average against, Arnold has cemented himself as a staple in the weekend rotation.
However, it appears that Volini, the transfer from South Florida, has taken over as the staff’s ace.
On Apr. 9th, Baseball America published an article comparing its preseason award predictions with its midseason predictions. Jacob Rudner and Peter Flaherty named Arnold their preseason pick for ACC Pitcher of the Year but switched their midseason pick to Volini.
“While Arnold is enjoying another strong season, it’s actually his teammate in Volini who has led the Seminoles’ pitching staff,” wrote Rudner and Flaherty. “Volini has flourished thus far in Tallahassee to the tune of a [2.39] ERA with [71] strikeouts to just [15] walks across [52.2] innings. A polished strike-thrower, Volini is around the zone and generates whiffs with all four of his offerings.”
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Another Tampa native, Volini, has pitched at least five innings in all but two of his starts. And with the exception of his outing against Wake Forest, he hasn’t given up more than two runs in any of his other starts.
The Seminoles certainly love to have both starters pitching at a high level. They are 14-3 when either Volini or Arnold starts, and the staff as a whole is pitching to the third-best ERA in the ACC. Coming off a College World Series appearance last season, FSU hopes to finish the job and win it all this season, with its top two Tampa-born starters leading the way.
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