Mike Martin Jr. said left-hander Bryce Hubbart will start for Florida State against Virginia on Wednesday in the ACC Tournament opener. Parker Messick will then face Notre Dame on Thursday.
Hubbart is 8-2 with a 2.97 ERA. He pitched just one inning on Saturday, allowing three earned runs and threw just 41 pitches before the coaching staff went to the bullpen. Martin Jr. said Hubbart had difficulty keeping his pitching hand dry but also didn’t alert the coaches that there was no rosin bag for him behind the pitching mound.
“I got on him pretty good about it,” Martin jr. said. “Yes, they’re supposed to supply a rosin bag but we have 10 of them in our dugout. You got to let somebody know … He was just out of sync.”
Martin Jr. said pitching coach Jimmy Belanger was also “going over some things with him in regards to his mechanics.”
Messick (6-4, 3.05 ERA) last pitched on Friday at North Carolina, tossing six innings and giving up seven hits and two walks along with four runs (three earned). He had four strikeouts and leads the nation with 136, which is also one away from joining FSU’s top-10 single-season strikeout leaders.
FSU (32-22) is the No. 9 seed in the ACC Tournament and will need to win both games to advance to a semifinal on Friday. The Seminoles were once viewed as a potential top 16 national seed and are now viewed as a No. 3 seed in a regional by D1baseball.com after dropping four straight games — losing at Florida and being swept at UNC to end the regular season 6-13 on the road. Martin Jr. said he outlined years where the Seminoles have struggled before putting the pieces together in the postseason.
“We showed them examples,” Martin Jr. said. “In 2010, we got swept (at Clemson) right before going in the tournament. Actually lost the first game of the tournament (to Miami), ended up winning the ACC tournament and going to Omaha. Everything is still right in front of us. Yeah, we didn’t play well last week but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to play well this week.”
Parker Messick, a first-team All-ACC pitcher and the league leader in strikeouts, strikeouts per nine innings, strikeout-to-walk ratio and WHIP, has been named a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy and the Golden Spikes Award.
The Dick Howser Trophy – named after the former Florida State shortstop and head coach – is presented by the NCBWA and will be given out for the 35th time in 2022. The winner will be unveiled on MLB Network on June 17. Four Seminoles – Mike Fuentes in 1981, Mike Loynd in 1986, J.D. Drew in 1997 and Buster Posey in 2008 – have won the Golden Spikes Award. Drew and Posey also have won the Dick Howser Trophy, and catcher Mat Nelson was a finalist last season after leading the country with 23 home runs.
Sophomore left-handers Wyatt Crowell and Ross Dunn have been selected to pitch for USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team this summer. The Collegiate National Team will play games throughout North Carolina before travelling to the Netherlands in July.
Crowell is 5-1 with a 2.47 ERA and 63 strikeouts in 43.2 innings out of the bullpen. Opponents are hitting just .205 against him. Dunn is 2-4 with 74 strikeouts in 46.0 innings pitched and opponents have hit just .218 against him.
FSU will play Virginia on Wednesday at 3 p.m. The game will be broadcast on regional sports networks like Bally Sports South but not Bally Sports Sun (full list here). You can listen to a live stream of Eric Luallen’s play-by-play at 3 p.m. here.
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