Second-year Florida State baseball head coach Link Jarrett has high expectations for his program.

Jarrett has the Seminoles off to a 7-0 start, erasing memories of a program-worst 23-31 record during the 2023 campaign.

This weekend, FSU heads to the First Pitch Invitational in Greenville, S.C., to play three games over three days against three different opponents: Michigan State (1:30 p.m. Saturday), Illinois (7:30 p.m. Saturday) and Western Michigan (3 p.m. Sunday). All three games will stream live on the Greenville Drive YouTube channel (free).

Update (March 1, 10:15 a.m.): Due to weather, games originally scheduled for Friday were postponed.

Jarrett, who said he put together the 2024 schedule from scratch, likened this weekend to what FSU's goal is this season, to return to an NCAA Regional.

"I like these early in the season, it gives you a regional field and you have four teams, which are capable teams," Jarrett said in a Zoom Video call with local media Thursday.

"There's some interesting stuff when you dive into this, but it's a good experience in the variable of the weather, being on the road and a different venue. It's a helpful thing as you progress deeper into the season. So there's a lot of parts of this that are educational and good experience for the staff and the players."

Jarrett added he had his teams play in similar tournaments when he was the head coach at Notre Dame. The Irish went 86-32 (.729), the second-best winning percentage in the country, during his tenure.

Playing in the tournament will give FSU a chance to play in a competitive environment against Illinois (3-5), Michigan State (2-6) and Western Michigan (6-2).

The Illini have losses to No. 1 Wake Forest 5-2 and No. 25 Coastal Carolina 17-9 on their resume, while the Spartans are coming off a 19-6 midweek win over Georgia.

The Broncos swept all four games against Pepperdine and split four neutral-site games with Michigan.

“You're essentially doing three times the work to get ready for the game,” Jarrett said. “You might be able to eliminate the non-starters for your opponent but you really have to assess the entire bullpen. And then as the weekend goes on, you can start to trim some of the bullpen guys from your later opponents based on their workload.

“But it is a lot of work and you do have to attack these things. Kind of one game at a time although the preparation is far deeper. I like these early in the season. It gives you a regional feel.”

Starter TBD on Sunday for FSU baseball

Cam Leiter (2-0, 1.80 ERA) and Jamie Arnold (2-0, 0.00) are scheduled to throw for FSU on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Conner Whittaker (2-0, 3.18) started Tuesday and will continue to pitch in midweek games, for the time being with midweek games against Florida Gulf Coast on the docket Tuesday and Wednesday.

Jarrett said a Sunday starter has not been decided upon yet. He suggested Brady Louck, Hudson Rowan, Andrew Armstrong, Carson Dorsey or Ben Barrett could be candidates to start or pitch a few innings on Sunday.

Barrett threw 45 pitches and picked up the save against the Bulls.

"We're going to TBD that right now," Jarrett said of a Sunday starter.

Florida transfer Yoel Tejada, who walked all three hitters he saw on 12 pitches in a start last Sunday, is not an option to start right now. Jarrett would like to get him into a less pressurized situation first.

"Clearly Tejeda was not at all what we had seen,” Jarrett said. “Not at all. He didn’t throw a strike. But there’s more in the tank. He’s going to have to factor into this. When we get through the first two days, let’s just see where we stand.”

Reach Ehsan Kassim at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @Ehsan_Kassim. You can also follow our coverage on Facebook (NoleSports), Instagram (tlhnolesports) and YouTube channel (NoleSportsTD).

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Link Jarrett leads FSU baseball into First Pitch Invitational