After a long offseason of nearly eight months, Florida State baseball is back.
The Seminoles kick off Link Jarrett's third season atop his alma mater Friday night at 5 p.m. (ACC Network Extra) with the first game of a three-game set vs. James Madison. Coming off their first trip to the College World Series since 2019 last year, they'll begin the 2025 season as a consensus top-10 team, ranked as high as sixth and ranked ninth by D1Baseball.
There are a lot of new faces expected to be in FSU's 2025 lineup with James Tibbs III, Cam Smith, Jaime Ferrer and Marco Dinges off to the MLB Draft. However, the Seminoles do return a few key offensive players like slugging centerfielder Max Williams (.311 with 14 home runs in 2024), team captain shortstop Alex Lodise (.281 with nine homers and 14 doubles), second baseman Drew Faurot (.286 with 26 extra-base hits) and catcher Jaxson West (.274 with .991 fielding percentage). They also added a handful of transfers and are likely to start two true freshmen in the lineup Friday night in designated hitter Hunter Carns and first baseman Myles Bailey.
While FSU is likely to see at least a slight fall-off in power from the program-record 131 homers it hit in 2024, the Seminoles enter 2025 with a pitching staff expected to be among the best nationally. That begins with junior ace Jamie Arnold getting the start Friday vs. JMU. Arnold enters 2025 as Baseball America and Perfect Game's Preseason Pitcher of the Year pick and the No. 3 overall draft prospect in this year's class according to MLB Pipeline. With his unique three-quarters slot from the left side, deceptively mobile fastball and offspeed to boot, Arnold had a 2.98 ERA over 105.2 innings with 159 strikeouts to 29 walks. He refined his changeup this offseason, giving him a third pitch he feels is close to the other two he relied on more heavily in 2024.
The Dukes will start sophomore righty Jackson Logar on the mound. He made 22 appearances but just two starts as a freshman in 2024, putting up a 5.19 ERA over 43.1 innings with 43 strikeouts but 24 walks.
FSU starting lineup
JMU starting lineup
I'll be at Howser all weekend starting tonight with live updates on the long-awaited debut of the 2025 FSU baseball team.
The Seminoles kick off Link Jarrett's third season atop his alma mater Friday night at 5 p.m. (ACC Network Extra) with the first game of a three-game set vs. James Madison. Coming off their first trip to the College World Series since 2019 last year, they'll begin the 2025 season as a consensus top-10 team, ranked as high as sixth and ranked ninth by D1Baseball.
There are a lot of new faces expected to be in FSU's 2025 lineup with James Tibbs III, Cam Smith, Jaime Ferrer and Marco Dinges off to the MLB Draft. However, the Seminoles do return a few key offensive players like slugging centerfielder Max Williams (.311 with 14 home runs in 2024), team captain shortstop Alex Lodise (.281 with nine homers and 14 doubles), second baseman Drew Faurot (.286 with 26 extra-base hits) and catcher Jaxson West (.274 with .991 fielding percentage). They also added a handful of transfers and are likely to start two true freshmen in the lineup Friday night in designated hitter Hunter Carns and first baseman Myles Bailey.
While FSU is likely to see at least a slight fall-off in power from the program-record 131 homers it hit in 2024, the Seminoles enter 2025 with a pitching staff expected to be among the best nationally. That begins with junior ace Jamie Arnold getting the start Friday vs. JMU. Arnold enters 2025 as Baseball America and Perfect Game's Preseason Pitcher of the Year pick and the No. 3 overall draft prospect in this year's class according to MLB Pipeline. With his unique three-quarters slot from the left side, deceptively mobile fastball and offspeed to boot, Arnold had a 2.98 ERA over 105.2 innings with 159 strikeouts to 29 walks. He refined his changeup this offseason, giving him a third pitch he feels is close to the other two he relied on more heavily in 2024.
The Dukes will start sophomore righty Jackson Logar on the mound. He made 22 appearances but just two starts as a freshman in 2024, putting up a 5.19 ERA over 43.1 innings with 43 strikeouts but 24 walks.
FSU starting lineup
| 1 | rf | 9 Gage Harrelson | L | 0-0 | |
| 2 | ss | 1 Alex Lodise | R | 0-0 | |
| 3 | cf | 18 Max Williams | L | 0-0 | |
| 4 | 3b | 4 Cal Fisher | R | 0-0 | |
| 5 | dh | 20 Jaxson West | L | 0-0 | |
| 6 | lf | 23 Brody DeLamielleure | R | 0-0 | |
| 7 | 2b | 3 Drew Faurot | B | 0-0 | |
| 8 | c | 21 Nathan Cmeyla | R | 0-0 | |
| 9 | 1b | 12 Myles Bailey | L | 0-0 | |
JMU starting lineup
| 1 | dh | 22 Dooley, Ryan | L | 0-1 | |
| 2 | ss | 23 Peifer, Wyatt | B | 0-1 | |
| 3 | 1b | 11 Calabrese, Coleman | R | 0-1 | |
| 4 | cf | 2 Langley, Kyle | L | 0-0 | |
| 5 | rf | 37 Schmidly, Ike | R | 0-0 | |
| 6 | 3b | 24 Guerrero, Jack | L | 0-0 | |
| 7 | 2b | 7 Moody, Reece | R | 0-0 | |
| 8 | c | 41 Cannizzaro, Jack | R | 0-0 | |
| 9 | lf | 1 Steadman, Eli | L | 0-0 |
I'll be at Howser all weekend starting tonight with live updates on the long-awaited debut of the 2025 FSU baseball team.
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