Worst of times, best of times...

Dickens would have loved FSU-Notre Dame miniseries

Sorry, Charlie.

It was the worst of times, FSU pitchers allowing 16 runs and a record-setting seven longballs in a 16-9 loss on Friday; it was the best of times, FSU hitters going up 14-0 after three innings on Sunday afternoon’s “rubber” game, then hanging on by their chewed fingernails from there in a game longer than an Oscar acceptance speech — a 17-9 win.

In the middle game, it was more like Seminole baseball is supposed to be with “Goodfella” Joey Volini, a no-nonsense, 6-foot-4, 247-pounder who could have walked off the set of “The Sopranos,” playing the role of Sydney Carton from Charles Dickens’ classic “A Tale Of Two Cities,” whose parting comment before the cold chop was: "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

It was the worst of times, it was the best of times, then it wasn't

Volini momentarily restored order with a complete game 4-2 victory (7 innings, 11 K’s) in the middle game, giving the beleaguered FSU bullpen seven innings to consider their sins — and to anticipate those that lay ahead in Game Three.

It was, in the “Ball Four” phrase, “a lot of day” on Sunday as the worn-out Noles were able to escape with two out of three in the series, just before those winds were going to start whipping through South Bend again.

Former Notre Dame coach Link Jarrett had it right when, on the pregame show, he said that “when the wind is blowing out, it plays small. When it’s blowing in, you can stand on second base and not hit it out.” The winds weren’t with the former Notre Dame coach this weekend. “An ill wind…”

So many baseballs were flying out of Jack Eck Field at Jake Kline Stadium, it’s a wonder the neighbors or the FAA didn’t complain. The utter collapse of the Seminole bullpen/arson squad on Friday was hard to watch. Pitcher after pitcher couldn’t figure out a way to prevent the Irish hitters from hitting the ball up into the 20 MPH Gulf Stream which apparently followed the Noles north.

Seven different Notre Dame hitters launched — and that is the appropriate term — home runs and even though FSU hit some, too, the Noles couldn’t keep up. A No. 9 hitter, a freshman, hit one. A guy hitting .228 hit a mammoth bomb off of Jamie Arnold, who didn’t look right, had control trouble and a puzzling lack of swing-and-miss-itis, the disease that enemy hitters almost always have against the talented lefty. Maybe he can’t pitch in the wind? This wasn’t the way to start a road trip.

When Saturday’s previously scheduled doubleheader was rained out twice, really - it was scheduled at noon, then again at 4 and both were scrubbed, that meant Sunday morning at the ballpark at an hour most collegiate students are not anticipating doing anything but snoring.

Volini himself had a difficult opening inning - a hit, a walk, a hit batter, then another hit batter to force in a run, but once he got his big curveball working, the Irish hitters were baffled. The win was a big one for a big guy, keeping the bullpen out of the game was huge. Well, it was as big as he is!

For the second straight game, Game Three starter Wes Mendes struggled a bit as did Arnold in Game One and it may just be part of a long season for these guys. All three of them had pitched so well through the first 20 games, it was probably unreasonable to think they’d continue all the way through Omaha. With the profusion of arms down in that bullpen, it was a bit odd that so many of them seemed to have a hard time. Just as it continues to amaze how many wild pitches/passed balls seem to elude whatever catcher Link puts back there. Maybe we’re just spoiled. They are 23-4, after all.

And maybe there are some pleasant surprises from here on out. Having amassed just four measly at bats through the team’s first 26 games, Jarrett gave James Hankerson Jr., who’d had a hankering to actually play in Game 27 and in his fifth at bat of the season, singled, in his sixth at bat of the season doubled and in his seventh at bat of the season hit a 460-plus foot HR, driving in six runs on the day. We might see him again. Carter McCulley hit his first career HR, too. And Alex Lodise continued his out-of-this-world hitting in Game Three with a pair of home runs and another hit, raising his average to .474. In Game Two, Gage Harrelson waited until the 9th inning to collect FSU’s second hit of the game - a HR, but Volini was in such command with the lead, nobody was all that worried in the FSU dugout since the bullpen was quiet.

With pesky Jacksonville coming in on Tuesday, then a Top 20 Wake Forest team, it’ll be good to be back home, hoping Arnold and Mendes can return to their pre-road trip form, the bullpen will sort itself out and Jarrett will continue to fiddle with the lineup, hoping to find a hot bat or two.

Just about halfway through the 56-game regular season, you’d have to say Lodise and Myles Bailey (.348, 9, 22) and Gage Harrelson (.374) have exceeding expectations. Max Williams (.324, 12, 30) is having a fine season but he’s talented enough to do more. Drew Faurot (.291), Cal Fisher (.292) and Jaxson West (.278) have had their moments but all three can do better than they have of late.

Once again, it’s easy to forget that this team lost two first-rounders and a bunch of pop. Jarrett and Micah Posey found solutions elsewhere (Faurot from UCF, West and Williams from Alabama, Volini from USF, Mendes from Ole Miss) and a No. 4 national ranking is pretty impressive, even as ugly as the Mercer loss and Friday’s beating at Notre Dame looked.

The schedule from here is uphill, that’s for sure. But this little sampling of road woes can only help. Now if they can just fix that bullpen.

Charles Dickens never got a chance to see baseball, I don’t think. But he always loved a good story. This could be it.