Play Ball!

The Seminoles and Volunteers meet for the first time since 1998 when the teams opened their seasons at the ACC Baseball Blast in Orlando, FL. FSU, Tennessee, Ohio State and Notre Dame all participated in that tournament. This will be the first trip by the Vols to Tallahassee since March 23, 1974. That was Jack Stalling's last season at the helm of the Seminole program. Tennessee has the overall lead in the series (4-3) and is on a three-game win streak. The last time a Seminole squad defeated the Volunteers was May 19, 1966. The two teams have never met more than twice in any season. This weekend's three-game series will mark the most meetings between the schools in one season in program history. One of the highlights of this weekend's opening series is the coaches. Tennessee Head Coach Rod Delmonico was an assistant coach for Mike Martin at Florida State from 1984-1989. The two remain close friends and Delmonico was in attendance at Martin's induction to the ABCA Hall of Fame just a few weeks ago.
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* Florida State will chase its 29th consecutive NCAA Regional appearance this season.
* Mike Martin is just 11 wins away from moving into fifth place for all-time career wins in NCAA Baseball history.
* The Seminoles played in the program's 28th consecutive NCAA Tournament last season.
* FSU starts the season ranked 13th by Collegiate Baseball, 15th by the NCBWA and 18th by Baseball America.
* Half of the 2006 College World Series field was made up of ACC teams and FSU will play weekend series with all four of those squads.
* The 2005 and 2006 squads rank as two of the top five best defensive teams in FSU history.
* Bryan Henry has a chance to become the first three-time All-ACC first team selection in school history.
* The Seminoles lost pitchers that accounted for 23 of the team's 44 wins in 2006.
* Seven of Florida State's top nine pitchers as far as ERA are back in 2007.
* In 59 years of FSU baseball the Seminoles have only lost a season opening series on two occasions. The last time the Seminoles lost a season-opening series came in 1981 when Georgia Southern took two of three games from FSU.