FSU Baseball hopes to break recent curse against Florida

FSU baseball needs a win Tuesday to avoid dropping three straight games – but will have to do so against a Florida team that’s had their number of late.

After a strong 14-0 start, FSU baseball dropped two of three games at Wake Forest over the weekend to start ACC play. The Seminoles won’t get much time to recover from the busy week, as they head to Gainesville on Tuesday to take on the Florida Gators – a team that has given them fits over the last decade.

While the Noles have winning streaks over their rivals in sports like football and men’s basketball, it has been the Orange and Blue who have owned the series of late – particualry since Kevin O’Sullivan took over as Florida’s head coach before the 2008 season.

While the Seminoles lead the all-time series, Florida has had the upper hand in recent years. Over the past six seasons, UF all but five of the 23 games against FSU baseball and has outscored them 109 to 55 runs, during that stretch. The Seminoles have also dropped six straight regular season games to the Gators, heading into Tuesday’s matchup.

Andrew Karp (3-0, 1.56 ERA) is set to start on Tuesday for the Noles. He started two games against the Gators last season, finishing 0-2. The last time he played in Gainesville, Karp pitched a career-high seven innings, notching 11 strikeouts and allowing only one run.

Florida State’s season didn’t necessarily begin as planned, after starting pitcher Tyler Holton tore his UCL in his first start of the season. Many expected the pitching staff to struggle without their ace, but FSU’s rotation has been able to maintain their composure. Florida State’s starting unit has, for the most part, been solid.

Cole Sands has been arguably the most dominant of the group, winning all four of his starts, while allowing only six earned runs and tacking on 31 strikeouts. Both Drew Parrish and Andrew Karp sport sub-1.75 eras and have a combined 61 strikeouts. Austin Pollack is the only starter with a loss on the books this season, but he won both of his previous two starts.

Six of Pollack’s seven earned runs surrendered this season came from his one loss to Wake Forest. While giving up six runs in 1.1 innings is a pretty horrendous stat line, it is only one game and can be chalked up as a bad day. Florida State’s starting rotation may be missing the leader of their rotation, but they remain a formidable group.

FSU’s bullpen has been a weak point of the team so far. Florida State relievers have accounted for roughly half of their runs allowed, and five of them have ERAs north of 3.00. FSU’s bullpen has had no problem striking out batters but need to find a way to cut down on runs allowed.