High school baseball teams across the state of Florida will no longer be able to ride the arm of a single pitcher through the state tournament.
The Florida High School Athletic Association announced Monday that playoff games will no longer be held once per week. Regional games will be held on Tuesday and Friday for Classes 1A through 4A. As for Classes 5A through 9A, teams will take the field in a Wednesday-Saturday-Tuesday format.
"It's about time somebody is using common sense," Spruce Creek head coach Johnny Goodrich said. "(The old format) doesn't reward a quality team; it rewarded a quality player. It loses the team concept.
"The other thing is you play about 25 games over 10 weeks, an average of 2.5 per week. Then you start playing once a week. You don't want to sit around and do nothing."
Perhaps the best local example the system's perceived flaw was University's success between 2015-17.
Ace pitcher Logan Allen took the mound throughout regionals in those three seasons, losing only once, in a 2016 final to West Orange. The left-hander, who later signed with Florida International, led the Titans to state semifinal wins in 2015 and '17. However, the team faltered in both championship contests.
In the two years in which University finished runner-up, Allen was charged for a total of 12 earned runs in 162.2 innings.
To account for the week subtracted from the postseason, the FHSAA plans to provide an extra week of preseason practice to mitigate concerns for arm safety.