FSU Baseball Looks Ahead to Omaha as Season Winds Down

By Travis Honeycutt on May 19, 2014

As the 2014 season winds down, it’s business as usual for Florida State Seminoles baseball.  Legendary head coach Mike Martin assembled yet another deep and talented squad with no glaring weaknesses that has resulted in a 40-13 overall record and a landslide ACC Atlantic division crown, posting a 20-8 mark in the conference as of Thursday night..

This weekend the fourth-ranked Seminoles welcome the Duke Blue Devils to Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium for a three-game series to close out the regular season.  Then it will be on to the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, N.C. where FSU will be looking for its first conference tournament championship since 2010.

via flickr user Thomson20192

The Seminoles are also a virtual lock for the NCAA Baseball Tournament in Omaha, Nebraska, regardless of what transpires in Durham.  This is just status quo for Martin’s team. Since Martin took over as head coach in 1980, FSU has never missed the NCAA Tournament.  Should they qualify, 2014 will mark the Noles’ 35th straight appearance in baseball’s version of The Big Dance. That stands as the second-longest such streak in college baseball behind the Miami Hurricanes who have appeared each of the last 40 NCAA tournaments.  Fans who travel with the team in support have made purchasing tickets to Omaha each June a second nature routine.

FSU’s success in 2014 has been a total balanced team effort. They stand tied for second in the ACC in both team batting average (.279) and earned run average (ERA) at 2.96. Sophomore outfielder D.J. Stewart paces the conference with his .353 batting average, while junior first baseman John Nogowski is tied for the conference RBI lead with 45.  Stewart is also tied for second with seven home runs.

They say  that pitching wins championships, and that shows with the quality staff of hurlers the Seminoles field on a daily basis. The team earned run average of 3.08 ranks 36th nationally — that’s out of nearly 400 teams in Division 1. Think about that for a second: Florida State allows an average of three runs to the opposition per nine inning game. In Major League Baseball that would easily lead the league every season — FSU is doing this in college, where they use metal bats and where hitting normally heavily ouweights pitching.

The pitching rotation is anchored by junior workhorse Luke Weaver, who tossed a team second-best 106.1 innings this season to the tune of a sparkling 2.62 ERA in 16 starts. Rotation newcomer Mike Compton was the next-most effective starter, posting a respectable 3.23 ERA in 15 starts. The sophomore did this after missing the entire 2013 season because of reconstructive elbow surgery.

FSU had six pitchers finish the regular season with sub-3.00 ERA’s, including last year’s opening day starter Brandon Leibrandt, who would unfortunately make just six starts in 2014 before being shut down with an injury. The team’s success speaks to Mike Martin’s knack for recruiting with great depth, as players who don’t normally contribute stepped up when others went down with injuries.

And, oh yeah, they have Jameis Winston.

The man who needs no introduction shined as the Seminoles’ closer, netting a 1.08 ERA in 24 relief pitching appearances. He struck out 31 batters in 33.1 innings, did not surrender a home run and teams batted just a collective .154 against the Heisman Trophy winner.

But for Florida State to make a deep run in the tournament, all these things need to come together under the bright lights and national cameras.

The seventh-ranked Noles were bounced from the 2013 NCAA Tournament in the second round by Indiana.  FSU’s normally-dominant pitching staff faltered and they were swept in two games by the Hoosiers by scores of 10-9 and 11-6.  In the 2013 regular season FSU had allowed 10 or more runs just once.

In 2012 FSU progressed all the way to the College World Series semifinals before being eliminated by eventual-champions Arizona.

One of the more baffling statistics in college sports history is not Florida State’s remarkable streak of reaching the tournament, but rather the fact that they have never won it.  Mike Martin is the third-winningest coach in NCAA baseball history and is a lock for the hall of fame and despite 15 College World Series berths his Seminoles have never taken home the national championship trophy.

Could this be the year that changes?  The Seminoles face some worthy competition in the upcoming ACC tournament, most notably Virginia who holds the only better record in the conference and ran away with the Coastal division title.  But regardless of what happens in Greensboro next week, #4 Florida State should have an at-large bid to the tournament to fall back on.  At press time FSU is projected to host one of the 16 regional groups in the round-of-64 to kick off the NCAA tournament.

Let’s take a look back at how the ‘Noles have fared in their rich history of postseason baseball appearances under Martin:

1980 saw Florida State win a then-school-record 51 games, amassing a 51-12 record in Mike Martin’s first year as head coach. This would be just the first of 23 seasons in which the ‘Noles were ranked in the top ten in the national polls at season’s end with Martin at the helm. That season also marked the beginning of their incredible streak of reaching the NCAA tournament which still stands today.

That 51-win record lasted exactly one season, as the 1981 squad was victorious 56 times. Then-members of the metropolitan conference (the school would join the ACC in 1992) they were perennial contenders every year, winning no fewer than 55 games and placing no worse than 22nd in the final rankings (1983).

In 1986 Martin’s Seminoles made a remarkable run to the College World Series championship game. After once again eclipsing the school record for wins (this time, 61) FSU progressed to the finals where they would be downed by the University of Arizona (just like in 2012!) by a score of 10-2.

’86 began a streak in which Florida State ranked in the top 10 in 24 of 29 seasons, dating to 2012. FSU matched its football counterpart in 1999 by reaching the national championship game once again, but was ultimately defeated by the University of Miami, 6-5.

In addition to their postseason success, FSU has enjoyed plenty of individual player success. The baseball program has produced 109 All-Americans, numerous players who have enjoyed long and lucrative MLB careers, and the 2012 National League Most Valuable Player in Buster Posey (class of 2008).

The regular season concludes Saturday, May 17th when the Noles host Duke at 1:00 PM at Dick Howser Stadium. The ACC Tournament gets underway Tuesday, May 20.

Tallahassee may be a football town, but you are simply missing out if you don’t give the Seminole baseball team a look now and again.  I mean, what else are you doing now that it’s summer time?  You and I both know you aren’t taking classes so support your Noles as they embark on Omaha once more, and let’s help bring Tallahassee another national championship in 2014.

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