The Florida State Seminoles baseball team represents Florida State University (variously Florida State or FSU) in the sport of

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

. Florida State competes in

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athleti ...

, and the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level ( Football Bowl Subdiv ...

are the second most successful NCAA Division I college baseball program in percentage of games won, with an all-time

win percentage In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...

of , second behind

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. The Seminoles rank sixth in all-time number of total wins and second in post-season wins. The Seminoles have appeared in the NCAA Tournament 59 times, advancing to the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divis ...

23 times — and have appeared in the CWS Championship Game or Championship Series on three occasions (1970, 1986, and 1999). Florida State has won 11 regular-season conference championships and 20 conference tournament championships, including nine regular-season ACC championships and eight ACC tournament championships. Florida State has had 100 All-Americans and 62 players that went on to play

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

. Former Seminoles who have gone on to have success include

Randy Choate Randol Doyle Choate (born September 5, 1975) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. The New York Yankees selected him in the 1997 Major League Baseball (MLB) draft from Florida State University. Choate made his MLB debut for the ...

, J. D. Drew, Stephen Drew, Ron Fraser, Johnny Grubb, Terry Kennedy, Doug Mientkiewicz, Shane Robinson,

Larry Rothschild Lawrence Lee Rothschild (born March 12, 1954) is an American professional baseball pitcher, coach, and manager. Rothschild played for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB) in 1981 and 1982. He has coached for the Cincinnati Reds ...

, Tony La Russa, Paul Sorrento, Kevin Cash, Woody Woodward, and

Jameis Winston Jameis Lanaed Winston ( ; born January 6, 1994) is an American football quarterback for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Florida State, where he became the youngest player to win the He ...

. The Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award, presented annually to the top catcher in college baseball, is named for Florida State hall of famer Buster Posey. Former head coach Mike Martin is the winningest coach in the history of college baseball. The Seminoles play their home games on campus at Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium on the university's

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the populatio ...

, campus and are coached by

Link Jarrett Lincoln "Link" Jarrett (born January 26, 1972) is an American college baseball coach and former shortstop, who is the current head baseball coach of the Florida State Seminoles. Jarrett played college baseball at Florida State University from 199 ...

Program history

Seminole baseball is one of the most successful collegiate baseball programs in the United States having been to 23

in 59 Tournament appearances, and having appeared in the national championship final on three occasions (falling to the

USC Trojans The USC Trojans are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ' ...

in 1970, the Arizona Wildcats in 1986, and the

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes (known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes) are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic A ...

in 1999). While under the command of head coach #11 Mike Martin ( FSU alumnus, 1966), Florida State became the winningest program in the history of college baseball. Since 1990, FSU has had more 50 win seasons, hosted more

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

Tournaments, and finished in the top 10 more than any team in the nation. Since 2000, FSU has been one of the best programs in

with more victories and a higher winning percentage in the regular season than any other school. FSU has made the postseason 44 years in a row. FSU also has two 60 win seasons and twenty-four 50 win seasons. FSU has hosted more Super Regional Tournaments than any team in the nation. In 2012, FSU passed

for the most all-time wins in regionals and super regionals. In 2014, FSU set the record for the most National Seed selections of all-time. In 2017, FSU defeated Cal-State Fullerton, in the 1000th College World Series game. FSU has never had a losing season in its history; there is no other team at any level of college baseball that has never had a losing season.

Early history (1948–1980)

The first coach of the Florida State Seminoles was Charlie Armstrong, who spent four years with the program and compiled a record of 46–29. Ralph Matherly became the second coach of the Seminoles. Matherly served as head coach for three years and compiled a record of 43–22–1.

Danny Litwhiler Daniel Webster Litwhiler (August 31, 1916 – September 23, 2011) was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from 1940 to 1951 for the Boston Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Philade ...

was named as the third coach at Florida State. Litwhiler spent nine years coaching the Seminoles and compiled a record of 189–83. He is the second longest tenured coach in the history of the Florida State program. The fourth coach of Florida State was

Fred Hatfield Fred James Hatfield (March 18, 1925 – May 22, 1998), nicknamed "Scrap Iron", was a Major League Baseball infielder who played nine seasons in the Major Leagues with the Boston Red Sox (1950–52), Detroit Tigers (1952–56), Chicago White S ...

. Hatfield was coach of the Seminoles for five years, and he compiled a record of 157–57–1. Jack Stallings spent six years as head coach at Florida State. Stallings compiled a record of 248–107–3, making him the second winningest coach at the school. As the sixth coach of the Seminoles, Woody Woodward led Florida State to an overall record 174–57 in his four years spent as head coach. Dick Howser returned to his alma mater to serve as head coach of the Florida State Seminoles for one year and guided the team to a 43–17–1 record.

Mike Martin years (1980–2022)

Mike Martin Sr. era (1980–2019)

Mike Martin was the coach of the Seminoles for 40 years after serving as an assistant for five years. He is the winningest coach in school history and his teams never won less than 40 games a season and reached the postseason in every year of his tenure, advancing to the world series on 17 occasions; in 2017, Martin won his 1900th game, becoming just the second coach in college baseball history to reach that milestone, in 2018, he become the winningest coach in college baseball, and in his final season, he became the first coach in history to win 2,000 games. During his tenure, he had 85 players drafted in the first ten rounds of the MLB Draft including 19 first round picks.

Mike Martin Jr. era (2020–2022)

On June 21, 2019,

Mike Martin Jr. Michael David Martin Jr. (born February 19, 1973) is an American baseball coach and former catcher. He was most recently the head baseball coach at Florida State University. Martin played college baseball at Manatee Community College in 1992 and ...

, a former player and assistant, was named head coach of the Seminoles. He guided Florida State to two appearances in the NCAA tournament during his tenure although the Seminoles were eliminated in the regionals on both occasions. On June 10, 2022, Martin was let go following three seasons, ending forty-three years of a Martin at the helm of the program.

Link Jarrett era (2023–present)

On June 24, 2022,

, a former player under Martin Sr., was named head coach of the Seminoles.

Venue

Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium

Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium is the home of the Seminoles and is located in

, on the campus of Florida State University. It is primarily used for

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

, and is the home field of the Florida State Seminoles baseball team. It opened in 1983 and after a two-year, $12 million project was completed in 2004 to make it one of the top collegiate baseball facilities in the United States, upgrading the stadium to a 6,700 capacity level. FSU's record crowd of 6,789 was set on April 19, 2008 with a defeat of then #1

by a score of 9–5.

Head coaches

*''Records are through the 2022 season'' *^{^}4 wins were vacated due to the academic scandal in 2007.

Current coaching staff

*Head coach:

*Assistant coach: Brad Vanderglas *Pitching coach: Chuck Ristano *Hitting coach/Recruiting coordinator: Rich Wallace

Traditions

Animals of Section B

Before the home half of the 5th inning, a group of fans known as 'The Animals of Section B', lead the Seminoles crowd in singing the Canadian national anthem,

O Canada "O Canada" (french: Ô Canada, italic=no) is the national anthem of Canada. The song was originally commissioned by Lieutenant Governor of Quebec Théodore Robitaille for the 1880 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony; Calixa Lavallée composed the mus ...

. This tradition is claimed to have started on February 13, 1988, during the

1988 Winter Olympics ) , nations = 57 , athletes = 1,423 (1,122 men, 301 women) , events = 46 in 6 sports (10 disciplines) , opening = February 13, 1988 , closing = February 28, 1988 , opened_by = Governor General Jeanne Sauvé , cauldron ...

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

, when FSU was playing Grambling State University. During the bottom of the 5th inning, with the score tied 2–2, a member of The Animals began humming the Canadian anthem. As the Seminoles began to rally for more and more runs, more Animals joined in the humming and the team scored eight runs that inning. With baseball being a sport with a long history of

superstition A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly applied to beliefs an ...

, The Animals have maintained the tradition ever since.

Sunday Golds

A tradition that began during the Mike Martin era, the Seminoles wear their gold uniforms for every game that they play on a Sunday.

Records and results

Year-by-year results

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, C = Conference *^{^}4 total wins vacated due to the academic scandal
*^{^}3 ACC wins vacated due to the academic scandal

Polls

Florida State been ranked in the Collegiate Baseball Division I Final Poll 54 times as of the end of the 2021 season. ''Top-10 finishes are colored ██''

All-time record vs. ACC teams

Florida State baseball maintains a winning record against all current ACC teams. *^{^}3 ACC wins are vacated from 2007 due to the academic scandal

Rivalries

Florida State in the NCAA tournament

Mike Martin coaches FSU at the College World Series

Florida State has appeared in the NCAA tournament a total of 59 times () the second most appearances of any team in history, including 44 straight appearances, the longest active streak and tied for the longest streak in tournament history. The Seminoles have hosted regionals a nation-leading total of 35 times (), including eight consecutive times from 2011–2018, have been selected as a national seed a total of 11 times (), the most of any school, and have advanced to a super-regional a nation-leading total of 17 times (), including six straight appearances from 2008–2013. *The NCAA Division I baseball tournament started in 1947. *The

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informati ...

of the tournament has changed through the years.

College World Series

Florida State has made twenty-three appearances in the

, compiling a 30–46 record and advancing to the title game on three occasions.

Championships

National Championship appearances

Florida State has appeared in the College World Series National Championship game three times in 1970, 1986 and 1999.

Divisional Championships

Conference Regular Season Championships

Conference Tournament Championships

Awards

Dick Howser Trophy

Golden Spikes Award

National Awards

* Johnny Bench Award – Buster Posey (2008), Matheu Nelson (2021) *

Brooks Wallace Award The Brooks Wallace Award is an award given by the College Baseball Foundation (CBF) to the best college baseball shortstop of the year. The award has been given annually since 2004. Until 2008 the award was presented to the nation's most outstandi ...

– Buster Posey (2008) *America Baseball Coaches Association National Player of the Year – J. D. Drew (1997), Buster Posey (2008), James Ramsey (2012) *Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Year Award – Terry Kennedy (1977), Mike Fuentes (1981), Jeff Ledbetter (1982),

Mike Loynd Michael Wallace Loynd (born March 26, 1964) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher with the Texas Rangers. College career Michael Wallace was drafted in June 1986 out of Florida State University and made the jump from college to the big leag ...

(1986), J. D. Drew (1997), Shane Robinson (2005), Tony Thomas, Jr. (2007), Buster Posey (2008) *National Rookie of the Year – Matt Diaz (1998), Blair Varnes (1999), Stephen Drew (2002),

Sean Gilmartin Sean Patrick Gilmartin (born May 8, 1990) is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets, Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays. Gilmartin was the 28th ove ...

(2009) *John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year – Mike McGee (2010) *

Rawlings Gold Glove Award The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in b ...

– Buster Posey (2008), Tyler Holt (2009), Sherman Johnson (2012) * Lowe's Senior CLASS Award – James Ramsey (2012) *Baseball America's National Coach of the Year – Mike Martin (2012, 2019) *Perfect Game/Rawlings National Coach of the Year - Mike Martin (2019) *Perfect Game Player of the Year: Matheu Nelson (2021)

Conference awards

*ACC Player of the Year – J. D. Drew (1997),

Marshall McDougall Marshall James McDougall (born December 19, 1978) is a former professional baseball player. Primarily a third baseman, he has played part of one season in Major League Baseball with the Texas Rangers, and one season in the Chinese Professional Ba ...

(1999), John-Ford Griffin (2001), Tony Thomas, Jr. (2007), Buster Posey (2008), James Ramsey (2012),

D. J. Stewart Demetrius Jerome Stewart (born November 30, 1993) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Baltimore Orioles. Stewart played college baseball fo ...

(2014), Matheu Nelson (2021) * ACC Pitcher of the Year –

Bryan Henry Bryan may refer to: Places United States * Bryan, Arkansas * Bryan, Kentucky * Bryan, Ohio * Bryan, Texas * Bryan, Wyoming, a ghost town in Sweetwater County in the U.S. state of Wyoming * Bryan Township (disambiguation) Facilities and struct ...

(2007),

Parker Messick Parker C. Messick (born October 26, 2000) is an American baseball pitcher in the Cleveland Guardians organization. He played college baseball for the Florida State Seminoles. Amateur career Messick grew up in Plant City, Florida where he att ...

(2021) *ACC Freshman of the Year –

Jonathan Johnson Jonathan Johnson may refer to: *Jonathan Johnson (baseball) (born 1974), former Major League Baseball pitcher *Jonathan Johnson (runner) (born 1982), United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics *Jonathan Johnson (ice hockey) (born 1993), Swedish ice ...

(1993), Stephen Drew (2002),

(2021) *ACC Coach of the Year – Mike Martin (1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2007, 2009, 2012)

All-Americans

*Luis Alicea *Mike Augustine *Roger Bailey *Ryan Barthelemy *Robert Benincasa *Allen Bevis *Barry Blackwell *Guillermo Bonilla *Jayce Boyd *Dylan Busby *Jim Busby *Brian Busch * Stephen Cardullo *Kevin Cash *Ron Cash *Tyler Chambliss *Chris Chavez *Randy Choate *Bob Clem *Mike Compton *Tom Cook *Brian Cox *Wes Crawford *Daniel Davidson *Randy Davidson *Matt Diaz *J. D. Drew *Stephen Drew *Jack Dull *Matt Fairel *Frank Fazzini *Jaime Ferrer *Bien Figueroa *Gar Finnvold *J.C. Flowers *Mike Fuentes *Ed Fulton *Sean Gilmartin *Dick Gold *Richard Gonzalez *Brad Gregory *Rick Gremillion *John-Ford Griffin *Pedro Grifol *Brett Groves *Johnny Grubb *Mark Hallberg *Bryan Henry *Daniel Hodges *Tyler Holt *

Tyler Holton Weston Tyler Holton (born June 13, 1996) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in MLB for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Career Amateur career Holton graduated from ...

*Dick Howser *Bryce Hubbart *Link Jarrett *Jonathan Johnson *Terry Kennedy *Ricky Kimball *Jeff Ledbetter *Brandon Leibrandt *Richie Lewis *John LiBrandi *Doug Little *Mickey Lopez *Mike Loynd *Matt Lynch *Jim Lyttle *Ryne Malone *Mike Martin Jr. *Robby Martin *Tyler Martin *Eddy Martinez-Esteve *Blane McDonald *Jon McDonald *Marshall McDougall *Mike McGee *

Drew Mendoza Andrew Keeler Mendoza (born October 10, 1997) is an American professional baseball first baseman who is a free agent. Amateur career Mendoza attended Lake Minneola High School in Minneola, Florida. As a senior in 2016, he hit .416 with seven home ...

*Parker Messick *Doug Mientkiewicz *Scooby Morgan *Jeremy Morris *Mat Nelson *Dick Nichols *Danny O'Brien *Pat Osburn *Drew Parrish *Geoff Parker *Craig Patterson *Eduardo Pérez *Trent Peterson *Buster Posey *Jeff Probst *Cal Raleigh *James Ramsey *Ray Revak *Tony Richie *Chris Roberts *Shane Robinson *Marc Ronan *Jack Rye *Jeremy Salazar *John Sansone *Mark Sauls *Brian Schultz *Jonah Scolaro *Scott Sitz *Chris Smith *Paul Sorrento *Gary Sprague *D.J. Stewart *Jason Stidham *Nick Stocks *Billy Strode *Ken Suarez *Stuart Tapley *Bud Teagle *Steve Tebbetts *Tony Thomas, Jr. *Devon Travis *Blair Varnes *C.J. Van Eyk *Taylor Walls *Jim Weaver *Luke Weaver *Conner Whittaker *Paul Wilson *Woody Woodward *David Yocum *Scott Zech

Notable players

Current professional players

Drafted players

Hall of Fame inductees

Two FSU players and one coach have been inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

Retired jerseys

Notable former players

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Florida State Seminoles Baseball Baseball teams established in 1948 1948 establishments in Florida