Lots of pitchers spend their time in the dugout focused only on game-planning for their next half-inning.
Not Parker Messick.
The Florida State Seminoles lefty is the first guy to run onto the field to chest-bump one of his hitters after a home run.
“That’s my run support,” Messick said. “Of course I’m going to be pumped up. The more runs we get, the easier it is for me on the mound.”
Messick doesn’t need much help.
In 12 starts this year, FSU’s Friday night starter is 6-2 with a 2.56 ERA and a nation-leading 128 strikeouts in 77.1 innings. He is holding opponents to a .189 batting average.
A 6-foot, 225-pounder from the Tampa area, Messick grew up rooting for the local teams – Rays, Buccaneers and Lightning, all of whom have, in order, made the World Series (2020), won the Super Bowl (2020 season) and won the Stanley Cup (2020 and 2021) in recent years.
“Not a bad time to be a Tampa fan right now,” Messick admits.
Messick’s brief time in Tallahassee hasn’t been quite that good, with his true freshman season of 2020 getting cancelled by COVID, and the Seminoles knocked out of the Oxford regional in two straight games last year.
Personally, Messick has been impressive. He had a 0.77 ERA, 19 strikeouts and just two walks in 11.2 innings in 2020.
Then, in 2021, he went 8-3 with a 3.10 ERA and 126 strikeouts in 90 innings, becoming just the second player in ACC history to win Pitcher and Freshman of the Year in the same season. He followed that with a summer spent competing for USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team.
This year, the 21st-ranked Seminoles are 30-17 overall and 13-11 in the ACC.
FSU is 7-5 with Messick on mound, including losses at Wake Forest, Notre Dame, at Georgia Tech, at Clemson and at Boston College.
So far, Messick’s best performances of the year have come in:
• A win over seventh-ranked Louisville (6 2/3 scoreless innings, five hits, no walks, career-high-tying 14 strikeouts).
• A win over ninth-ranked Texas Tech (seven scoreless innings, two hits, no walks, career-high-tying 14 strikeouts).
• A no-decision against 16th-ranked Notre Dame (eight scoreless innings, two hits, no walks, 11 strikeouts).
Messick’s only dud was at Georgia Tech, where stud catcher Kevin Parada took him deep for a two-run homer. Messick allowed 10 hits and six runs in 2 2/3 innings against Tech.
On Friday night, Messick will face another tough test when sixth-ranked Miami visits Tallahassee.
Messick has a fastball (90-94 mph), a mid-80s slider, a changeup with good vertical depth (80-83) and a mid-70s slurve.
“His best pitch is his changeup,” FSU pitching coach Jimmy Belanger said. “His fastball velocity has been much more consistent this year.
“But his best asset is his character. He does everything right as a student and the way he treats people, and then, on the field, he will do anything to beat you.”
Seminoles players and coaches rave about Messick as a teammate. FSU first baseman Alex Toral, a former Miami Hurricanes star who arrived in Tallahassee this year via the transfer portal, learned extremely early in his Seminoles tenure about Messick as a teammate.
“My first day transferring to Florida State, he got word that I was on my way up,” Toral said. “He called me and said, ‘When you get here, give me a call. I’m going to help you move into your apartment.’
“I was a little bit nervous coming up here to a rival school. But Parker is a team-first guy. He cares about everybody in this locker-room. He’s one of the best teammates I’ve had in my life.”
Messick is also a ferocious competitor.
Toral said he had some 10-pitch to 12-pitch at-bats against Messick this fall. Toral, a lefty batter, isn’t accustomed to getting changeups from a lefthander, but it just showed that Messick isn’t afraid to use any of his pitches on any count.
“He threw all four of his pitches each at-bat,” Toral said. “I couldn’t go up there and hunt one pitch because he threw a different one each time.
“Parker is a guy you don’t want to play against because of his raw emotion. As an opponent, you might look at it in a bad way. But as his teammate, you love it.
“He’s a very special guy.”
Toral added that Messick’s “herky jerky” delivery makes it tough to pick up the baseball.
“A lot of people describe it that way, but it feels smooth to me at this point,” Messick said with a laugh. “I’ve thrown the same way since I was a freshman in high school.
“A lot of people think I throw from a low three-quarter slot, but I really don’t. I have a normal arm slot with a low approach angle.”
Because his stuff is not overpowering, Messick is seen by some scouts as a second-round or third-round pick rather than a higher selection that would perhaps be more commensurate with his production.
Messick is unfazed by any of that, and he said he leans on his Christianity to guide him through the process of becoming a pro.
“Every kid growing up wants to make it to the big leagues and be a first-rounder,” said Messick, who is majoring in Economics with a minor in Business. “But I’m huge in my faith. I believe God is going to take care of that when the time comes. Right now, my main purpose is to lead this team to Omaha.
“If I do that, everything will fall in line.”
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