Clark: And it shall forever be known as the 'Tim Becker Game'
ATHENS, Ga. — The Florida State baseball team still has a whole lot of work to do this weekend.
One win over Florida Atlantic is still just one win. The Seminoles need at least two more, maybe three. We all get that.
So let's not worry about their postseason fate for now.
Instead, let's focus on Tim Becker's incredible afternoon here in Athens, Georgia.
The senior walk-on, who had exactly two extra-base hits (both doubles) all season before Friday, hit two 2-run homers in the Seminoles' 13-7 win over Florida Atlantic in Game 1.
One was a no-doubter over the scoreboard in right field. The second one was a wind-aided, towering fly ball that kept carrying and carrying until it snuck over the fence in dead center field.
They both counted the same. And they both were magical moments for a team that has been searching for a little bit of magic all year.
"That was surreal," Becker said. "I didn't expect that, honestly."
Of course not. He had only four starts all season and 32 at-bats. None of them had ended with him hitting a homer. So it would've been weird if he HAD been expecting to hit two on Friday in his first NCAA Regional game.
But that's exactly what he did.
The kid, who played the last three years on the FSU club team, the kid who didn't even try out for the actual Florida State baseball team until his senior season, the kid who admitted he was surprised when Mike Martin, Jr. offered him a spot after his tryout, went and turned into J.D. Drew for three hours in Athens on Friday.
It was pretty incredible to watch.
Especially if you were one of his teammates.
"I've never been so excited for a home run in my life, even my own," said junior Drew Mendoza, who hit two himself in the Seminoles' win. "The excitement in the dugout when Tim does anything actually - if he catches the ball or throws the ball - we go nuts.
"Those two were smashed. And they really got us going."
Becker smiled as Mendoza talked. How could he not?
He was sharing a podium in a postgame press conference - an NCAA Tournament postgame press conference, in fact - with a dude who's going to be a very high selection in the Major League Baseball Draft and another who just happens to have the most wins in college athletics history.
He was right in the middle of the two. Staring down cameras, answering questions, nodding along as the other much more famous men talked about him and the game.
I have to imagine the scene after one of those club team games was a bit different. The entire experience was, as he put it, surreal. And yet there he was, reliving a game in which he played a pivotal role in a Florida State University victory in an NCAA Regional.
"I'll probably realize it tomorrow," Becker said. "But I'm just soaking in the win."
"It just goes to show you that all of us want in life is an opportunity to show what we can do," Mike Martin said. "This guy right here was on the Florida State club team last year. I don't think the guys that drove to the sites of the games even got (paid for) gas mileage. They just love to play baseball. And Tim Becker is one of those guys that loves to play baseball."
Just to make him laugh during the press conference I asked him if he was the best hitter on his club team.
"No, no," he said with a smile. "We had a good group of guys. And shout-out to those guys, they kept me in the game for three years. … They got behind me this whole year. So I'm kind of, for them, just playing their dream, too."
For three years, Becker had a chance to try out for the Florida State team. But never did. He just played club.
Then, finally, with only one last opportunity, he decided to give it a try. Just to see what would happen.
"I knew this was going to be my last year of baseball, so I figured lets give it a shot," Becker said. "Nothing to lose."
He had heard that Florida State didn't like to take walk-ons from tryouts, so he wasn't expecting much. In truth, it was also the biggest reason he had never gone out for the team before.
Becker said the tryout lasted about 25 minutes and included a couple of sprints, some swings and some throwing.
"It was like, 'All right, we'll let you know if anything happens,'" Becker said. "And I was like, 'All right. That was fun. I got to go on the field, take a few off the wall. So that was cool.' Then two days later, Meat called and was like, 'Hey, we need you down here.'"
And there he was on Friday, hitting two critical two-run homers for the Seminoles in the biggest game of the season.
Sometimes all we need in life is an opportunity.
And no matter what happens the rest of this weekend, the former club player made himself a memory - two actually - that he will be able to cherish for the rest of his life.
While for the rest of us it will forever be remembered as the "Tim Becker Game."
Noteworthy: The two teams combined for nine homers in the game as the ball was jumping out of Foley Field. J.C. Flowers got it started with a solo shot in the second. Becker and Mendoza both hit one in that inning as well. Reese Albert also got into the act with one in the top of the ninth inning that finally seemed to put the Owls away for good.
Mike Salvatore had four hits for the Seminoles, who had 20 in the game. Albert and Mendoza each had three hits and Matheu Nelson, Carter Smith, Flowers and Becker each had two.
Mike Martin cleared up what happened on that weird play in the ninth inning. With a runner on third and two outs, Flowers hit a groundball to the shortstop, who promptly threw it over the first baseman's head for a run-scoring error. On the play, Flowers barely ran to first, stopped and was looking back toward the plate when the throw got away from the first baseman. Martin said that Flowers wasn't loafing down the line - he said he would have been pulled immediately if that had been the case - but instead he throught he heard the umpire call "time."
Antonio Velez pitched 3.1 innings of relief for the Seminoles, allowing two runs on one hit (naturally it was a homer). He struck out three and walked one in relief of starter Drew Parrish, who gave up five earned runs in five innings.