This weekend the Fastpitch News game of the week will feature two teams in our Top 25. The No. 4 Florida State Seminoles and No. 17 Texas A&M Aggies will square off as part of the second weekend of the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, Calif.
First pitch is schedule for 5:30 p.m. PT tonight.
At the Plate
Florida State is coming off a clean sweep of the Big Ten/ACC Softball Challenge. The Seminoles played Nebraska and Northwestern twice and made it look easy. FSU outscored the Cornhuskers 17-0 and the Wildcats 10-2.
Redshirt senior Alex Powers leads the Seminoles offense with a .552 average. In 29 at bats, she has 16 hits, nine of which are doubles. Junior Jessica Warren provides the power with a team-leading six home runs and 11 runs batted in. Freshman Dani Morgan has been a solid addition to the Seminoles lineup as well. Out of the team’s ten games, she has started eight. She is 8-for-18 with eight RBI.
The Florida State offense has scored a total of 67 runs its 10 games and hitting .336 as a team. The strikeout to walk ratio is pretty even with 32 and 33.
Texas A&M has played all 10 of its games at home in College Station so far this season. The first weekend it hosted the Aggie Classic and last weekend was Texas A&M Invitational.
Offensively, the Aggies are led by juniors Ashley Walters and Tori Vidales. Walters is hitting .417 and has an on-base percentage of .548. Vidales is at .379 and leading the Aggies in runs scored (10), and tied for the lead in home runs (2) and RBI (9).
The Aggies are hitting .329 as a team and have outscored opponents 63-19.
In the Circle
Jessica Burroughs leads the pitching staff from Tallahassee. She is 5-0 on the year with a 0.51 earned run average in 27.1 innings pitches. She has given up 11 hits, walked five and struck out 38. Meghan King has shared most of the load with Burroughs. King is 4-0 with two complete games and 24.2 innings pitched. She has fewer strikeouts and has given up more hits than Burroughs but her ERA is 0.00.
The Aggies have three pitchers who have seen a lot of innings so far this season. Samantha Show leads the way with a 4-0 record, 0.59 ERA, and three complete games. In 23.2 innings she has given up 14 hits, eight walks, and two earned runs while striking out 20. Trinity Harrington and Lexi Smith are both 3-0 and have pitched 18 innings each. Harrington’ ERA is 0.78 and Smith’s is 3.05. Smith leads the pitching staff with 25 strikeouts.
FPN Analysis and Prediction
Both teams stack up evenly with offense and pitching. Neither has played a ranked opponent this year. The biggest test is for the Seminoles who recently moved up to No. 1 in the USA Today/NFCA Coaches’ Poll for the first time in program history. The Seminoles have to face Arizona, UCLA, and Michigan later in the weekend while A&M has Arizona State, BYU and Michigan.
The pressure is on FSU while A&M could be a dark horse out of the SEC.
Pick: Texas A&M
