As he wrapped up a postgame press conference 14 days ago, Florida State baseball coach Mike Martin said what the small gathering of reporters was already thinking.
"We ain't getting a Regional," Martin said emphatically. "I'm sorry. We ain't getting ..."
At just that very instant, Martin, who is in his 38th season as the Seminoles' head coach, paused and corrected himself.
"Well ... stranger things have happened," he said.
Fast forward two weeks, and strange things have happened, indeed.
At the time of Martin's comments, the Seminoles had just dropped a series at home against Wake Forest. All of the games were close -- both of the Demon Deacons' wins were by one run -- but Martin's frustration was obvious.
That weekend marked FSU's fifth and final ACC home series of the season, and the Seminoles had dropped three of them. They were swept by highly ranked North Carolina, and they lost two of three to Wake Forest and Virginia. A Florida State team, which was a consensus Top 5 pick in the preseason and reached as high as No. 1 in one poll early in the year, was suddenly concerned about even making the postseason -- forget about hosting an NCAA Regional.
Then Louisville happened.
For the final weekend of the regular season, FSU was sent to face a Cardinals team that some believed was the best in the country. Not only had Louisville already locked up the No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament, but they were a clear-cut National Seed for the NCAA tournament.
On paper, the series appeared to be no contest. Louisville hadn't lost a home series all year, and FSU's record in nine games against top 10 opponents (3-6) was less than impressive.
The game was not played on paper. The Seminoles shocked the then-No. 2 Cardinals in the first game, 12-9, and then steamrolled them in the second, 8-2, before the series finale was rained out.
Since then, FSU has proven that weekend was no fluke, rolling to three straight victories in the ACC tournament -- 5-3 against Notre Dame, 6-2 against Louisville, and 5-1 against Duke -- to reach the championship game.
