The bad news for Florida State baseball is that the team is reeling. The good news is that it’s going to be hard to have a week worse than last one.
FSU finished 1-4 last week and a result, dropped 12 spots in three different polls. 1-4 is a bad week regardless of who you are as a program, but when you look at how the Seminoles went 1-4, it was much worse than the record.
During the week, FSU was shut out twice. The Seminoles began the week with a 1-0 loss to rival Florida in Gainesville. It marked the 13th loss in 16 games to their arch-rivals. The week concluded with a 17-0 loss to Virginia Tech for the biggest shutout loss in program history.
Last Tuesday’s loss to Florida marked the third straight shutout suffered by FSU at the hand of its rivals going back to last year’s Super Regional. The Seminoles briefly made it look like that would be a 1-time thing as they responded with two first inning runs against Florida Gulf Coast the following night. By the time the first inning was over, FSU was behind 3-2 and would not score again the rest of the night in a 5-2 loss.
The ship looked like it might finally get righted over the weekend against Virginia Tech. After winning 9-2 on Friday, FSU raced to a 10-2 lead the following day, only to watch the Hokies score 11 unanswered runs to win 13-12. The 17-0 Virginia Tech victory the following day served as the exclamation point on a sour week.
Florida State’s effort to right the ship starts on Tuesday as the Seminoles host Jacksonville. FSU defeated the Dolphins 6-5 when the teams met on Feb. 28 in Jacksonville.
Getting the ball for Florida State on Tuesday night will be sophomore right-hander Andrew Karp. Despite being 0-1, Karp has been nothing short of outstanding this season, posting a 2.10 ERA with 34 strikeouts and just three walks in 25 2/3 innings.
Karp struck out a career-high 11 in last week’s loss to Florida, but got no run support from his offense. In a start against South Florida earlier in the season, Karp worked seven shutout innings, but his bullpen gave up four runs in the ninth. Karp allowed three runs on five hits in six innings in the first match-up with Jacksonville this season.
Florida State will then resume ACC play with a 3-game series at Notre Dame, beginning on Friday. The home team has swept the 3-game series in each of the last three seasons.
After a difficult week last week, the competition is down slightly this week. Though the Dolphins have wins over Florida and UCF, they’re just 11-11 for the season while Notre Dame is 6-12.
With that said, FSU could desperately use a good week. Head coach Mike Martin seems to realize that. Martin and the Seminoles could get some help with outfielder Jackson Lueck back in the lineup after missing time with shin splints.
Duplicating a week as bad as last one for Florida State will be hard to do. If things don’t improve this week however, there are a couple of impressive streaks that could be in serious jeopardy.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson
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