There has been some mumbling about a shakeup in Florida State’s weekend pitching rotation, but the midweek role is one that Andrew Karp has embraced and one where he has excelled.
The latest example came Wednesday night in a 6-2 win over Jacksonville. In the FSU victory at Dick Howser Stadium, Karp went seven solid innings, allowing just two runs on seven hits while walking two and striking out five.
“We were hoping he’d go close to 120 pitches,” FSU head coach Mike Martin said. “He threw 105.”
A redshirt junior, Karp has put together a consistent season and has been a reliable arm for midweek contests. On the season, Karp is 5-2 with a 3.07 ERA. Among starters, only Drew Parrish has a better earned run average and only Friday night starter Cole Sands has as many wins.
In midweek games this season, FSU is 7-2 with the only two losses coming to rival Florida — the No. 1 team in the Baseball America Poll. In the most recent contest between the schools — a 1-0 Florida win on March 27 in Jacksonville — Karp yielded just a run on four hits while going the distance for the Seminoles.
In addition to the solid outings, Karp has also helped preserve the bullpen for the weekend. In six of his seven starts, Karp has gone at least five innings and allowed three or fewer earned runs. The lone exception came on March 13 as he was hit around for seven earned runs in 4 1/3 innings in a 12-6 loss at Florida.
Martin was asked about the prospects of Karp moving to the weekend rotation on Wednesday night, but the legendary coach was tentative with his response. That change being made with less than two months remaining in the regular season seems unlikely, but as the ACC and NCAA Tournaments roll around, Karp will be critical to FSU’s success.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole and former editor of Noled Out. Mike has more than seven years experience as a sports writer including the last four in print and online media. Mike graduated from Florida State University in 2009 with a Bachelors in Religion and a minor in Communications. Mike provided press coverage of Florida State's run to the 2013 BCS National Championship. Mike is also a news reporter at Polk County's newspaper, The Ledger in Lakeland, Florida. and contributes to Athlon Sports and ACCSports.com. Mike has been featured on sites as prominent as Yahoo Sports, FoxSports.com, Associated Press and the front page of SI.com while interviewing athletes as high profile as 2013 National League MVP, Andrew McCutchen. Email Mike at Mike@TheDailyNole.com. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson.
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