Florida State baseball mentally refreshed with aces on the mound for ACC Tournament
Mike Martin Jr. knows the winless final week of Florida State baseball's regular season was extremely underwhelming.
He probably knows it cost them their chance at hosting an NCAA Regional, and he may have been told that FSU's No. 9 seed in the ACC Tournament is the worst in program history.
But the three off days between the end of the Seminoles' series at North Carolina on Saturday and FSU's ACC Tournament opener Wednesday at 3 p.m. against Virginia at Truist Field in Charlotte allowed for a reset.
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The FSU head coach has seen plenty of rapid turnarounds in his 25 seasons as a coach for the Seminoles. He used some of that time to show his team film of a somewhat recent FSU team saving its season in a fashion similar to how the Seminoles will try starting this week.
"The message was I showed them examples. In 2010, we got swept right before going into the tournament, actually lost the first game of the tournament, and ended up going to Omaha," Martin said.
"We gave them different examples to lean on. Everything is still right in front of us. No, we didn't play well last week. That doesn't mean we're not going to play well this week. Everything has been upbeat. We're getting our work in and we did a little team building."
FSU held its seventh annual Big Shooter Putt Putt Tournament Monday night. This mini golf competition has quickly become one of the team's off-field highlights of each year's ACC Tournament week, and Martin said this year's event was extremely competitive.
Martin also quipped that FSU pitching coach Jimmy Belanger may have been exposed as the worst putter he's ever seen while participating in the tournament.
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After the fun and practice earlier in the week, FSU plays at 3 p.m. on consecutive days starting Wednesday.
The Seminoles are the bottom seed in Pool D of this year's conference tournament and will need to beat both Virginia on Wednesday and Notre Dame on Thursday to advance to win the pool and advance to Saturday's ACC Semifinals. FSU didn't face UVA during the regular season and was swept at home by ND in a series that accounted for three of its eight home losses this season.
The bad news for the Seminoles is they won't be hosting an NCAA Regional even if they win the ACC Tournament.
The good news is that their 15 wins against Q1 opponents and their No. 3 strength of schedule mean they'll be in their 44th straight NCAA Tournament even if FSU loses both pool-play games this week.
From his talks with the team, Martin is confident that they have the right mindset entering this week's slate of games.
"It's been a little bit of everything, but I like where we're at mentally and we're looking forward to getting out there and playing," Martin said.
"I don't think that confidence is an issue...It's pretty standard operating procedure to try to stay upbeat and to understand the situation at hand, what happened last week and that this is a new week."
FSU going with its aces on the mound
Considering the Seminoles are only guaranteed two games in Charlotte this week, it makes sense they would use their two best starting pitchers for the pool-play games.
That's exactly what they will be doing as Saturday starter Bryce Hubbart will start Wednesday against the Cavaliers and Friday starter Parker Messick will start Thursday against the Irish.
Both Messick and Hubbart have had exceptional seasons for the Seminoles and earned All-ACC honors Monday. Messick (6-4, 3.05 ERA, tied for second-most strikeouts nationally with 136) was named to the All-ACC first team while Hubbart (8-2, 2.97 ERA) was named a second-team All-ACC pitcher.
However, both FSU standouts haven't been at their best recently leading into the postseason. Messick has allowed eight earned runs over 11.1 innings in his last two starts against Miami and UNC. Hubbart lasted a season-worst one inning against the Tar Heels, allowing three runs on two hits with two walks.
Hubbart wouldn't normally be able to start again so quickly, but he threw just 40 pitches against UNC, paving the way for him to pitch again now on three days of rest.
"Hubb stunk the last time out and only threw 40 pitches. It's a situation where he's the most rested and we've got to get him right back out," Martin said of Hubbart.
"We're not going to go anywhere if we don't have him as his usual self. Jimmy has been going over some things with him in regard to his mechanics and we're going to run him right back out tomorrow."
FSU baseball in the ACC Tournament
FSU vs. Virginia
When: Wednesday, 3 p.m.
TV/Radio: Bally Sports RSN/100.7 FM
FSU vs. Notre Dame
When: Thursday, 3 p.m.
TV/Radio: Bally Sports RSN/100.7 FM
Reach Curt Weiler at cweiler@tallahassee.com or follow him on Twitter @CurtMWeiler.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Mike Martin Jr. used past FSU baseball turnaround film to motivate team
