FSU Baseball: Mike Martin to blame for 2019 regular season failures

FSU baseball limps into the postseason this week with the ACC Tournament and all of the issues fall at the feet of the man wearing No. 11 one final season.

For at least two days in the next week, the FSU baseball team knows it will take the field in Durham, North Carolina to take part in the annual postseason tournament for the Atlantic Coast Conference – and knowing full well that they should be thanking all their lucky stars that they are at the point they are right now.

Entering the week of action in the Tar Heel State, the Seminoles come into action with a robust record of…35-20 on the season that started with 13 wins in the Noles’ first 14 games and nine wins in an 11 games stretch in the middle of the season.

So, we take out those two streaks and how did FSU baseball do the rest of the season? Well, quick math shows us that the Seminoles went 13-17 over the other half of the season as they head into the conference tournament with 20 regular season losses for the second time in the last three seasons.

Florida State Seminoles

The regular season struggles have been overlooked to an extent in Tallahassee the past few seasons due to postseason glory – ACC tournament titles, a trip to the College World Series – but this is the season where the panic button has been hovered over most of the time and it’s all for one main reason.

The decision to give head coach Mike Martin one final ride in the 40th season as head coach of the Seminoles might have been the right move emotionally, but it was without a doubt the wrong move on the field.

For season after season after season, it has been the same criticism of No. 11 from players and other coaches since the time when I was a student at the school – and I graduated so long ago that kids born right when I graduated are having bar mitzvahs this year.

From taking pitchers out too early on in games during the first part of the season that they don’t know how to work out of trouble to underachieving against teams the Seminoles have no business losing to (cough, cough…Jacksonville, Stetson…), the struggles of this season fall squarely on the winning shoulders of the man saying goodbye when this season comes to a close.

For the entire 2019 season, we’ve been watching Martin be praised across the college baseball world by every single opponent the Seminoles have faced – praise and honor he should get for decades of excellence – right before the Seminoles typically underachieved in the actually game.

Now, would I love for FSU baseball to go out this week and dominate against foes like Wake Forest, N.C. State and whoever they may play this weekend? Of course and I would be the first person to admit I jumped the gun if the Seminoles win this week’s event in Durham.

But, judging by how the 2019 regular season went for the Seminoles, you can be more than willing to bet that the Noles may be watching this weekend and hoping they somehow back door into the NCAA Tournament.