For Florida State baseball coach Mike Martin, retirement will have to wait -- again.
Martin, who is hanging up his uniform for the final time at the end of this season, found out officially on Monday afternoon that his career would be at least one week longer as the Seminoles were chosen as one of the at-large teams in the 2019 NCAA Baseball Tournament.
It's the 40th time in his 40 seasons as head coach, but it wasn't a lock by any means.
So much so that Martin admitted he had a hard time falling asleep on Sunday night as he wondered whether he'd get to coach in a Florida State uniform for at least two more games.
It was extremely new territory for the Seminoles' skipper. His team had been a No. 1 seed every other year this century besides one (2006). And that year, they were comfortably in as a 2 seed.
When it came to 2019, Martin knew if his team made the tournament, it would be as a 3 seed, which made for a bit of a restless night. (No. 4 seeds are reserved for teams from smaller conferences who automatically qualify by winning their league tournaments.)
"I didn't sleep worth a dern," Martin said. "And I can usually sleep through a hurricane. I was just thinking about the teams we missed not playing (teams with high RPIs like Georgia Tech) in the league, which we had nothing to do with. … And is that going to be used against us?
"I was thinking, of course, that that was an important game we played against N.C. State (on Friday). That turned out to be more important than we thought. So, yeah, I'm very relieved to know now that we're going to Athens for a regional."
In fact, the NCAA revealed on Monday that FSU was one of the "Last Four Teams" chosen to be in the field. Which made Martin -- and a lot of other people -- reflect on just how big that 11-0 win over N.C. State in the ACC tournament really was.
"I had thought that our 17 wins in the league was something that had always indicated that you had qualified for a regional," Martin said. "But we needed that ball game probably more than I realized. And our players knew that if we could win that one, it would certainly put us in a better position than we were in."
This has been unlike any year Martin has ever experienced. From the retirement gifts he's received at virtually every away park he's been to, to the 7-13 stretch in the middle of the season, to some rather humbling losses to Boston College, Pitt and Stetson (and of course, Florida), it hasn't been an easy final year.
There have been almost as many downs as ups.
But on Monday afternoon, Martin's Seminoles -- who had played with some added pressure in 2019, trying to get their legendary head coach to one last NCAA Tournament -- found out they had done just enough to qualify for a 42nd straight year.
They'll play Florida Atlantic at noon on Friday in Athens. And if they win that, they'll play the Mercer-Georgia winner on Saturday. If they lose twice this weekend, Martin's career is over.
The Seminoles know that going in. But just getting there, making sure his last game wasn't in Durham, N.C., making sure he didn't find out during a television show that he had coached his final game, might just take some pressure off this team as it tries to make one last run at Omaha.
"There's no way you feel the same as you did four hours ago when you didn't know whether you were going to get to a regional or not," Martin said. "And then when the camera flashed the 'Last Four In' and you saw that we were one of the last four in, I can assure you there's no pressure like what we were experiencing."
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