Fla. State coach says 38 hits, 37 runs a ‘fluke,’ team needs to focus on Super Regional

Fla. State tries refocus after ‘fluke’ 37-6 rout

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Veteran Florida State coach Mike Martin thought he’d just about seen it all during his long baseball career.

Well, not quite.

The 65-year-old Seminole skipper was still flabbergasted Monday about the events he’d witnessed a day earlier when his team destroyed Ohio State 37-6 with an NCAA record-setting offensive barrage that included 38 base hits and 15 doubles.

“If we hit the ball, it found the hole,” Martin said. “Every ball we hit seemed to be just out of their reach. We couldn’t do anything wrong.”

Ohio State coach Bob Todd didn’t disagree after the school’s worst shellacking.

“Everything they did was right,” he said.

Martin, who is preparing for Arkansas (37-22) in his ninth Super Regional tournament in 11 years, knows how quickly things could change around in baseball.

“We’ve got to understand that what happened was a fluke,” he said.

“You can go back to the ACC tournament and see where we hit .254,” he said. “This happened to be a part of the most unpredictable game that’s ever been invented.”

It certainly was Sunday.

Florida State’s first nine batters reached base as the Seminoles jumped to an 8-0 lead before leadoff hitter Tyler Holt hit into a double play in his second at bat of the opening inning.

“We just got a break in the first inning on a ball that was lost in the sun and the next thing I know it’s 8-0,” Martin said.

Florida State (45-16) led 20-0 after three innings and built the lead to 32-0 in the fifth inning before the Buckeyes finally got their first run.

“We weren’t up there taking, no doubt about it,” said Martin, who sent 16 different players to the plate. “We didn’t have anybody else to play.”

And as hard as Martin tried to keep the score down, that didn’t work either.

“A guy we’ve been platooning some goes 5-for-5,” said Martin, who is finishing his 30th season as the Seminole coach. “We started a freshman in left field and he gets three doubles.”

Shortstop Stephen Cardulo went 7-for-9 — the most hits in a game by a Florida State player since Marshall McDougall’s record six home runs at Maryland 10 years ago.

The platoon player Martin referenced, Mike Meschke, boosted his batting average 43 points from .282 to .325.

“Unbelievable is the only word that keeps coming to my mind,” said Martin, who gave his slugging players the day off Monday. “If we’d have gotten half of what we got it would have been a big score.”