Joe Charles has waited years for moments like this.

With all he's been through, the days of being a highly-regarded baseball prospect (No. 35 overall prospect and No. 12 right-handed pitcher in the 2019 class, according to Perfect Game) probably feel like a lifetime ago.

Over his first four seasons in college baseball, Charles appeared in seven total games as a reliever sidelined by injuries and other circumstances, which were out of his control.

In 28 games this season, Charles has appeared in 11 games out of the Florida State bullpen, allowing just two earned runs over 10 innings for a 1.80 ERA (which ranks as third-best among FSU's pitchers in 2024).

Charles admits now he wondered if it would ever happen for him. That has to make the success he has found this season that much more satisfying.

"I think this year has been probably the most enjoyable year of baseball in my life," Charles told the Osceola. "Just because of the perspective that I have on it and how special this team is and how special the players, the coaches, the relationships we have are. I think that all combined with me being able to be healthy and competing, I really couldn't ask for much more than this."

While that success Charles has found this season may come as a surprise to some, it hasn't to first-year FSU pitching coach Micah Posey, who says Charles was as good as any pitcher on the staff during the Seminoles' fall camp.

"He was a guy that we thought was really good and we just needed to keep him on the field somehow," Posey told the Osceola. "Here he is, he's on the field and it's really not that surprising."

In 2020, Charles appeared in three games for North Carolina as a reliever before the coronavirus pandemic shut down his true freshman season. Then he missed the entirety of his 2021 season at UNC due to a lower-body injury.

While receiving a medical redshirt at UNC that season, he traveled with the team down to Tallahassee for a series against the Seminoles, which wound up being quite fateful to his trajectory.

"I just looked and I saw how much fun the other team was having," Charles said. "FSU beat us two out of three and just something inside me looked over and I was like, 'I'm gonna be on that team next year.' A voice inside me was like looking around and saying, 'I need to be a part of this...'

"Definitely a big part of it was the fans. At UNC, the fans came to games and students would do homework on their laptops and watch the game. Here, the fans were getting rowdy, they're involved, the stadium is packed. I just had a voice in my head that said, 'You were meant to be here. You're meant to be at FSU.' "

Charles made that a reality when he transferred in to join the FSU baseball program that offseason. While the Celebration, Fla. native knew he had FSU ties in his family, he didn't know until he officially became a Seminole how far back it went.

"I didn't even realize until after I transferred here that I'm a fifth-generation Florida State Seminole, which I think is pretty cool I'm able to extend that in my family," Charles said.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to stay healthy long into his time as a Seminole, either. Charles threw just 1.1 innings over two appearances in his first season at FSU in 2022 before he suffered an elbow injury that would require Tommy John surgery.

Another significant setback at a time where Charles felt he was finally coming into his own under the tutelage of then-FSU pitching coach Jimmy Belanger.

"It was tough because I came to FSU and just felt at home and fell in love with this place and was really starting to pick up some momentum and felt really confident that I was gonna have a great year that year," Charles said. "It was tough when I hurt my elbow because I didn't really know at the time as a junior what my future was holding."

The injury sidelined Charles for over a year. Even when he returned a month into the 2023 season, he didn't find much success, allowing three earned runs and issuing four walks over two appearances spanning just 1.2 innings in games against UCF and Virginia.

After that, Charles wasn't utilized in any of FSU's final 30 games that season.

Looking back now, Charles sees that period of recovery as something that greatly helped him shape his mindset.

"One of the lessons I learned was to stop worrying so much about the future because after that moment, I really realized I didn't have any idea what the future holds. I just needed to shift my mindset to being the best version of myself every day and just taking things day by day. That helped me through it," Charles said. "It really was a tough time. It wasn't very fun to come here and get hurt so soon and have to sit there just watching. It definitely helped me shift my mindset of not worrying so much about the past or the future, but just being my best self each day knowing that was gonna get me wherever I was meant to be."

When Posey arrived at FSU this summer as Charles' third pitching coach in as many years as a Seminole, he could have easily been lost in the shuffle. Instead, he took advantage of the clean slate provided to him both by Link Jarrett and the new FSU pitching coach to make another run at it.

That's exactly what Charles has done through the first half of the season. In his first three seasons of pitching at the collegiate level, Charles threw just 4.1 innings and issued nine walks with just five strikeouts.

In 10 innings this season through 11 appearances over 28 games, Charles has issued just five walks and struck out 14 batters. He's finally realized the vast potential his slider has, using it as a real weapon — which has kept opposing batters guessing.

"I would say coach Posey is really good at helping you figure out what you need to do to get the most out of yourself. Because I would say a lot of pitchers are different in their routines, what they need to get the best out of themselves, I think coach Posey is really good at navigating that and helping tailor different approaches to different pitchers," Charles said. "I would say when you do identify strength of yours, he really helps you capitalize and hammer down on your own personal strengths. I'd say that a really good quality of his is he helps you figure out what you're good at and you build off that. Especially being a bullpen arm coming in, you want to have your best stuff right away."

Charles showed in last weekend's series win over Louisville that he's extraordinarily capable of immediately having his best stuff out of the bullpen. In Thursday's series opener, the Seminoles turned to the redshirt junior in the seventh inning when Louisville loaded the bases with no outs, leaving FSU suddenly clinging to a 6-3 lead.

Charles was more than up to the task, striking out the first two batters he faced and then getting a groundout to escape the threat unscathed on just nine pitches. He then closed the game out as well, throwing perfect eighth and ninth innings to record a long-awaited first career save in FSU's 8-3 win.

"He's been through a lot to get back to where he's actually healthy and able to pitch. He earned that moment today and it was the difference in the game..." Jarrett said after Thursday's win. "The adrenaline and the feeling you have when you're playing the game in that moment, it can help you ratchet the stuff up a little bit, but it's got to be controlled intensity and adrenaline and staying within the mechanics. If you're not within your mechanics and lining things up the way you've trained, you're probably not going to execute. I thought everything he did was on point, well done, mechanics, mind, execution. Really nice."

As if to prove his Houdini-esque escape was no fluke, Charles was summoned once more in Saturday's rubber match vs. the Cardinals. With FSU leading 5-3 in the sixth inning, Louisville put two runners in scoring position after a two-out double off Brennan Oxford.

FSU called Charles' number again to get out of the jam and he got a first-pitch groundout to end the threat, paving the way to the Seminoles' 9-4 win to clinch the series.

"We call (pitchers like that) firemen," Posey said. "There are some guys that like to run into the fire and they enjoy that. He's definitely one of those guys when he gets into those tight spots. It seems like he's kind of grown into that."

For Charles, it was really just a moment of the years of work he put in and adversity he went through paying off and proving that inner voice which compelled him to become a Seminole right,

"It's pretty exhilarating. That's why you come to FSU is to play in front of our crowd, in front of our fans and those types of situations," Charles said. "That's exactly why you come here and they really make it a great experience. It's like nothing else and it's a lot of fun."

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