BATON ROUGE, La. — Be honest. You thought it was over.
As you watched the first five innings on Saturday, you likely said to yourself, "Oh well. That Athens Regional was nice, but this team isn't winning a game in Baton Rouge. Heck, it might not even get a hit!"
I certainly don't blame you if you felt that way. We've watched FSU baseball enough through the years and we've watched this team enough this year to think that maybe the breaks just wouldn't go the Seminoles' way on a stage like this.
Then Reese Albert happened. The sophomore had one of the best at-bats I've ever seen, fouling off pitch after pitch after pitch before launching a three-run homer over the bleachers in right field to tie the game at 4-4 in the seventh inning.
Just like that, in a game where it felt like the Seminoles had been dominated, where they had been no-hit through five innings, they were tied in the seventh. And two innings later, they were celebrating on the infield after a 6-4 win in front of a stunned LSU crowd.
There's no way of knowing how the rest of this series will play out. LSU is LSU for a reason. Alex Box Stadium is as rowdy an atmosphere as you'll possibly find in any baseball stadium outside of the Major Leagues in October.
But on Saturday, this team that had us all scratching our heads for four months had us rubbing our chins and thinking, "Can these guys really get to Omaha? Is this going to happen?"
First things first, though. Let's talk about that Albert at-bat. These are the at-bats that turn losses into wins. These are the at-bats that turn postseason disappointments into all-time memorable moments.
"He was making good pitches," Albert said. "The pitches I fouled off were borderline strikes. So I had to swing. And finally he just gave me a pitch I could do some damage with."
Here's a look at the at-bat pitch by pitch:
He fouled off five straight 3-2 pitches from Trent Vietmeier.
I talked with Albert after the game about his approach there. He knew - or at least assumed - he wasn't getting a breaking ball in that spot because they didn't want to risk walking him and pitching to Drew Mendoza with the bases loaded.
So he kept expecting fastball, thinking eventually he was going to turn one around. He did. Hitting it over the bleachers in right field and off the top of the baseball building with the weird roof.
"There were probably two (foul balls) where I thought, "Man, I could've lined that the opposite way or whatnot,'" Albert said when I asked if he got dejected when he kept barely missing the fastballs. "But I felt like every time I fouled one off, he was getting more nervous than I was. Because I knew he wasn't going to throw a breaking ball."
Not with Mendoza looming on deck.
"So the more I saw it, the more confident I was in thinking I can handle it," Albert said. "The ball happened to go over the fence, but I'm not trying to do that."
There were still more heroics to come, of course.
Albert would hit another home run - a moon shot that seemed to be in the air for 20 minutes - in the top of the ninth inning, Tim Becker would add to his legend with another terrific at-bat (more on him in a moment) and J.C. Flowers would pitch out of a jam to record a two-inning save with seemingly the entire state of Louisiana trying to rattle him in the ninth.
But this first home run by Albert, this epic at-bat that FSU fans will remember for a long, long time if this team ends up making it to Omaha (or even if it doesn't probably), is what made this win so magical. That just didn't feel ... normal.
I don't want to write this column as if FSU has never experienced postseason success. The Seminoles have been to 22 College World Series and won 17 of their last 21 regional tournaments. So let's not act like they always come up short in June. That's not the truth.
But in this moment, in this place, against this program, it just felt like another one of those, "Oh well, it was fun while it lasted, but the ride is coming to an end" type of afternoons.
Then Reese Albert said, "Think again, fool!" And damaged a roof.
"That was a huge at-bat," Flowers said. "It just shows the type of team we are. We're fighters. And that was a great at-bat by Reese."
It completely flipped the game around. And took the air out of the Box. Setting up the Seminoles' go-ahead run an inning later, thanks to another great at-bat that seemed to be soaked in a little bit of magic as well.
It was from the guy I wrote about 1,500 words on last week. The guy who became such a fan favorite in Athens that he received the biggest cheer from the FSU fans - aside from Martin - when pregame introductions were taking place.
Tim Becker struck out in his first two at-bats on Saturday. He then ripped a single to right in the seventh to start the three-run rally. In the eighth, he came up with the bases loaded and one out, facing LSU's best relief pitcher, Zach Hess. The same Zach Hess that was almost untouchable two years ago when the Seminoles lost to LSU twice out in Omaha.
Becker immediately got down in an 0-2 hole. He then fouled off three tough breaking balls, took two out-of-the-zone fastballs, and then lifted a fly ball deep enough to left to score Matheu Nelson from third base to give the Seminoles the lead.
Again, this was an at-bat that I figured would end in disappointment for the Seminoles. Especially when he got down in an 0-2 hole. But Tim Becker doesn't f'n care what I think.
"He did a very good job of driving in Nelly with a big run," Mike Martin said. "Because he refused to do anything other than what he's been working on."
A kid that most FSU fans — and some Warchant editors — had never heard of before last weekend came through yet again with a clutch RBI.
It's enough to make you think that maybe, just maybe, there actually has been some magic dust sprinkled on the 2019 Florida State Seminoles.
Or maybe the road still ends here in Baton Rouge. Beating the Tigers twice in their own stadium is a really tall task. We all understand this.
No matter how it ends up, though, this 2019 Florida State baseball team has made a stirring charge. From the Athens beatdown to the stunning comeback win in front of a million LSU fans, this Seminoles team is making sure Mike Martin's final run is indeed a memorable one.
And, oh yeah, they got him 40 wins for a 40th straight season.
"If this sounds corny, it's OK, ladies and gentlemen because I don't really care," Martin said. "We care about each other. we want to play solid baseball. People are entitled to say what they want to say. We care about each other. And that's what this team has done. They have shown heart, they've shown they'll get out there and battle no matter the circumstances. And that's what makes us proud to be a Seminole."
