FSU Baseball: This is Probably Martin’s Final Shot at a Title

The improbable College World Series run for the 2017 Florida State Seminoles continues on Saturday, when the prime time match-up with the LSU Tigers is slated to take place.

For all the ups and downs the team experienced along the way, the postseason run the team is currently undergoing has been nothing short of spectacular. From improved pitching to consistent hitting to late-game heroics, Florida State really has shown why it continues to be one of the premier college baseball programs in the country.

Getting to the College World Series has now busted open the hypotheticals once more. Can this team win it all? Will the trend of stellar pitching continue? Do the match-ups favor them?

Is this head coach Mike Martin’s last chance?

The final question is indeed one that has now become all too apparent ever since the Seminoles punched their ticket in the Super Regional against Sam Houston State. Everyone knows that you need a little bit of luck to put yourself over the top when it comes to baseball. Far too often, that luck has not been present with Martin’s teams. Despite his best efforts, he has yet to attain that coveted title.

This year is probably his last opportunity to do so.

Earlier in the season, we wrote about the desperation that seemed to permeate from Martin when talking about his team’s struggles. He was sometimes at a loss for words when try to figure out what had happened to the team with championship expectations. He reiterated that all they needed was to win — winning solves everything. It seemingly has for Florida State.

Many have seen the video of Martin exploding with joy when announcing to his team that they’re going back to Omaha. It’s a fun video, and it shows the type of passion that Martin has for the game and for the school. It also shows a man who realizes that his team has a legitimate shot at taking home the trophy.

Martin is 73 years old. If nothing else affects him, it is age alone that encapsulates why Martin will likely be retiring after next season. He is only 33 wins away from breaking the record for most wins by a coach in college baseball history. By now it is widely accepted that the record is probably the biggest reason he is actually still coaching. Even if he had no championships to his name, Martin would still go down in the annals of history as one of the greatest coaches of all-time — as if he isn’t already.

With the talent that he has assembled on this year’s squad, Martin almost certainly knows that he won’t be able to replicate any similar result next season. Florida State just had nine players get selected in the Major League Baseball Draft. That number in of itself doesn’t mean anything, but a couple of the names do.

Mainly, those of Taylor Walls and Dylan Busby. Both were chosen in the third round of the draft, with Busby going higher than most anticipated. Both are likely to sign with the teams that drafted them.

That leaves Florida State without two of its best hitters. Once again, those two alone would not be enough to hit the reset button. But FSU will also lose Quincy Nieporte and Alec Byrd to graduation. That’s another good hitter and a key lefty relief pitcher.

The Seminoles will still be returning guys like Drew Mendoza, Jackson Lueck, (probably) Tyler Holton, Cal Raleigh, and other promising players. However, it would be a stretch to say that they could simply just reload and make another CWS run. Losing three of their best batters would especially take a toll and require some shuffling. Could they do it? Sure.

But after watching the team for most of the season (until the Louisville series), does anyone think they could come right back to Omaha? Despite being a model of consistency, the Seminoles had not been in five years prior to this season.

Heck, the Louisville series still is not much of a cutoff. Absolutely egregious base-running errors and odd situational bunting occurred all the way through the Super Regional. There remains plenty of “head-scratchers” when it comes to gauging this team’s coaching.

One could easily overlook the signs that this current team is not as well-coached as its recent hot streak might indicate. After all, as long as you win games, it doesn’t matter in the end, right?

The problem is that those types of issues tend to rear their heads quite a bit after the experience has left and the luck returns to normal. There’s no point in trying to predict how 2018 will pan out when 2017 hasn’t ended yet. But programs cannot be stuck in the short term; they have to look forward to the future. Right now, it looks like 2017 is the best bet for an FSU national title for the next few years.

Martin can only do so much at the end of the day. Kudos need to be given to him and his staff for figuring out the pitching situation, and trusting guys that might not have impressed earlier in the year. In fact, they did such a good job with it that Tyler Holton allowed six runs (two earned) in a Super Regional contest and FSU still won. If someone said that back in late April, would you have believed them?

Right now, Florida State has the momentum. The Seminoles are eager, they’ve improved on some of their weaknesses, and they know that each game carries a certain weight with it in the College World Series. They’ve had their backs against the wall multiple times in the postseason so far; they’ve come out with a victory each time.

With his coaching days numbered and the potential for significant attrition next season, Martin’s best shot at a championship is now. Legacies are not necessarily built or destroyed on winning a national title. But it would certainly feel nice if Martin was finally able to grab one for the program.