Weekend Series Preview: Penn

  

  The Florida State Seminoles, D1Baseball's ninth team in the country, will host the Penn Quakers of the Ivy League in the second series at Dick Howser in this young season. Due to the weather, Penn has yet to play a game in this 2025 season, which can pose a tricky situation for FSU. 

    However, Coach Jarrett has his boys ready. In his weekly presser, Jarrett said, "They're a competitive team, they're a regional team. John Yurkow knows what he's doing."

    Penn's head coach, John Yurkow, has been very successful over his ten years at Penn. He's coached the Quakers to two 30+ win seasons in two out of the last three years and two consecutive Ivy League Conference championships. He then led them onto the Auburn Regional in 2023 and the Charlottesville Regional last season. 

Penn Roster Outlook

    When asked about Penn, Coach Jarrett made it a point to highlight how experienced the Quakers are as a team.

    "They play really good baseball and it's an older team that has been in this sort of environment. So it is unusual. But when you're looking at the age of the team and the experience and the quality, they're going to be just fine."

    The Quakers have 17 upperclassmen on their roster. Most notable shortstop Davis Baker and center fielder Ryan Taylor. Other notable players returning from last season are Nick Spaventa, Asa Wilson, Connor Chavez, Gavin Collins, and Jarrett Pokrovsky. 

Baker's oppo hit brings in two

Vid Cred: Penn Baseball

Here's what their stat lines looked like last season:

• Davis Baker - .319 AVG, .521 SLG%, 7 HR, 44 RBI
• Ryan Taylor - .308 AVG, .473 SLG%, 3 HR, 39 RBI
• Nick Spaventa - .318 AVG, .492 SLG%, 7 HR, 40 RBI
• Asa Wilson - .297 AVG, .396 SLG%, 23 RBI
• Connor Chavez - .281 AVG, .384 SLG%, 3 HR, 16 RBI
• Gavin Collins - .274 AVG, .377 SLG%, 1 HR, 23 RBI
• Jarrett Pokrovsky - .273 AVG, .432 SLG%, 4 HR, 26 RBI

    Both Baker and Taylor are highly aggressive base runners, each recording 14 and 13 steals, respectively, last season. Their performances placed them among the top 5 Ivy League players in stolen bases.

    The Quakers lost two of their big arms from last season to the draft, so their pitching rotation will look different than it did.

    On Friday, Penn will trot out RHP Josh Katz for the eighth start of his career. In high school at Lane Tech College Prep, Katz won Conference Pitcher of the Year, City Pitcher of the Year, and Lane Tech MVP. Last season, Katz finished the year with:

• 7.41 ERA
• 37.2 IP
• 40 K
• 20 BB

    Their Saturday starter will be Marty Coyne, a lefty. Last season, Coyne started five times and was a crucial reason for the Quakers' win in the Ivy League Championship game, pitching 3.2 innings and allowing only one run. Coyn's 2024 stats looked like:

• 7.71 ERA
• 28.0 IP
• 32 K
• 17 BB

To close the weekend, senior Will Tobin will take the mound. He's spent all four years with the Quakers and Coach Yurkow. He's coming off a season where he had a career-low ERA and a career-high number of Ks. In 2024, Tobin finished with:

• 4.81 ERA
• 33.2 IP
• 29 K
• 11 BB

Tobin makes a highlight double-play.

Vid Cred: Penn baseball

FSU

    The pitching rotation for the Noles looks the same as it did last weekend. The Jesuit trio of Jamie Arnold, Wes Mendes, and Joey Volini.

Jamie Arnold (1-0):

• 0.00 ERA
• 6.0 IP
• 8 K
• 0 BB
• Only allowed one hit

Wes Mendes (1-0):

• 0.00 ERA
• 5.0 IP
• 8 K
• 1 BB
• Two hits allowed

Joey Volini (1-0):

• 0.00 ERA
• 4.2 IP
• 7 K
• 1 BB
• Two hits allowed

Volini on the Mound

Photo Cred: FSU Baseball

    As a unit, FSU's pitching staff has the third-best ERA in the nation coming into Friday's matchup with 0.77 and 15th nationally in K/BB ratio with a 5.44. 

    Through the first four games, FSU has four players batting above .300 that have played in all four games (Lodise, Faurot, Harrelson, C. Williams). 

• Lodise - .444 AVG, .667 SLG%, 1 HR, 4 RBI
• Faurot - .412 AVG, .824 SLG%, 2 HR, 6 RBI
• Harrelson - .375 AVG, .563 SLG%, 1 HR, 5 RBI
• C. Williams - .333%, .500 SLG%, 3 RBI

    It's hard to determine who Jarrett will start on the bats because he's still adjusting to this team and their newcomers. 

    "I'm still learning them. As much as we would like to grab all the data in the fields that we had in the fall and the preseason, the game is different and how they react to things in the game is different." 

    FSU's identity has been their defense so far. Let's see if they can keep up their effectiveness in the outfield and pick up their first win against Penn in the program's history.