OKLAHOMA CITY -- You probably had to be inside Hall of Fame Stadium here Tuesday night to have an idea of what the Florida State softball team was up against.
Just to get a taste of it.
The reality is it's doubtful anyone could really understand what this experience was like, other than the Seminoles' players and coaches.
Taking on the No. 1 team in the country -- an Oklahoma squad that has pulverized almost everyone it has faced this season -- in the finals of the Women's College World Series is one thing.
Doing it here, in this recently expanded stadium on the Sooners' home turf, is something entirely different.
***Don't miss out on our great FSU sports coverage. Get your 30-day FREE trial!***
FSU coach Lonni Alameda has played and coached at the highest levels of competitive softball for decades. And even she admitted this was a new experience.
"It's incredible. It's incredible for the game," Alameda said. "I don't know if anyone's ever played in this environment unless you're playing Oklahoma at home for a national championship."
There were a stadium-record 12,173 fans in attendance Tuesday night.
If I had to hazard a guess, I would say a good 300 of them might have been Florida State fans. The rest? They were Boomer Sooner to the bone.
And they were not just there; they were active participants. They have organized cheers with the Sooners' players that break out at any given moment -- between innings, during innings, it doesn't matter. One minute you're watching a softball game, and the next you feel like you've stepped into a pep rally.
And you got the sense before Tuesday's game, as those fans arrived in droves, that they were preparing for a coronation. That this WCWS championship series was nothing more than a formality.
Who could blame them?
The Sooners had played 57 games this season coming into these finals. They had won 54 of them -- most by gaudy, lopsided margins. Powered by an offense that puts up numbers that simply don't make any sense, when compared to the rest of the country.
OU's team batting average coming in was .410; no other team is at .350 or above. The Sooners blast an average of 2.72 home runs per game; no other team is at 2.0 or above. They score nearly 11 runs per game on average; there are only three other teams above 7.0 and none above 8.0.
Statistically, their lineup looks like an all-star squad, with one .450 hitter after another. And again, the Sooners have the advantage of essentially playing at home here in Oklahoma City -- where they have won three of the last seven Women's College World Series championships.
When you add it all together -- the most dominant program in recent college softball history, a star-studded lineup and a 12,000-seat stadium that is overflowing with their fans -- you might expect an opponent to be intimidated in that situation.
Yet this particular Florida State softball team, at least as of Tuesday, hasn't appeared capable of experiencing that emotion. They waltzed into Game 1 of this best-of-three series and raced out to a 7-0 lead by the fourth inning. It was almost exactly what the Seminoles did 24 hours earlier against No. 3 Alabama -- claiming an 8-0 advantage in that one.
While it's not exactly normal to take touchdown leads against the best softball teams in the country, nothing these Seminoles have done in the last several weeks is normal.
Since getting upset by Duke in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament, FSU has flipped some sort of master switch.
The 'Noles cruised through their home NCAA Regional behind dominant pitching, allowing a grand total of two runs in three games. They then went on the road to Baton Rouge, La., to face No. 7 LSU in the Super Regionals and came away with two straight one-run victories.
And after falling in their WCWS opener against No. 2 UCLA, 4-0, they had to win four straight elimination games just to get to this point. They knocked off Arizona in dramatic fashion, thanks in large part to Dani Morgan's three-run homer in the sixth inning. They knocked off No. 5 Oklahoma State in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
Then they came back and took two straight from No. 3 Alabama -- a team that hadn't lost a game in nearly two months. And they capped it off by walloping the Tide's star pitcher, Montana Fouts, who could be the best in the country.
But even after all of that, this challenge right here is the biggest of all.
And it's far from over, even after the Seminoles' 8-4 victory on Tuesday.
You could feel that in the later innings Tuesday when the Sooners started mounting a comeback. The Seminoles' lead went from 7-0 to 7-4 in a hurry, and OU had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the sixth.
The stadium roared. The Sooners' super sluggers were starting to tee off on FSU starter Danielle Watson, who competed brilliantly all night. And Oklahoma's players were brimming with confidence.
One big hit there, and it felt like this entire 12,000-seat stadium would come unhinged.
Instead, reliever Kathryn Sandercock coaxed a ground ball to second base, Devyn Flaherty fielded it cleanly and made the throw to first, and the Seminoles were back in their dugout. The game was essentially over.
Now, the question is whether Alameda's club can do it one more time.
Oklahoma's players and head coach Patty Gasso, while trying to be respectful to Florida State, clearly felt that what happened Tuesday was a result of their own sub-part performance.
And they sound supremely confident it won't happen again. It was mentioned repeatedly in their postgame press conference that they haven't lost to any team twice this season. To the contrary, the Sooners have exacted quick revenge in each case.
When they fell by one run at Georgia in mid-April, they stormed back to win 12-3 in the nightcap of a doubleheader. When they lost at rival Oklahoma State in early May, they rebounded to score 17 runs in the next two games to win the road series.
And when they were stunned by James Madison in the opening round of the WCWS, they came back to pound the Dukes in two straight games, 6-3 and 7-1, to advance to this championship series.
When she was asked if she made a point of bringing those experiences up to her players after Tuesday's loss, Gasso said it wasn't necessary.
"I don't need to tell them," she said. "They know. They know exactly how this works. And I mean, you've got to put it all out there. And I think we learned from the way we played tonight. And I'm very confident, as I know they are, that they will not repeat that performance and have a different mentality of fight, even when things aren't going our way. We just can't sit back and wait. And so they're not happy right now. I know that. But that's a good thing. That's a good thing.
"It's going to show our character and our style and who we really are as a team and as a program. So I'm looking forward to it. I think you're going to see a different team with a different approach and much better play."
Did we mention the Sooners were confident?
What we all should realize by now, though, is this Florida State team seems to love this kind of challenge. They don't see themselves as scrappy underdogs, the way they've been portrayed so often by ESPN's announcers this postseason.
They see themselves as champions. They won this whole thing just three years ago, with several players on this current roster.
They have hitters capable of putting crooked numbers on the scoreboard, and who have done it on this stage.
They have three front-line pitchers led by Sandercock, who is 27-3 on the season and picked up her second save on Tuesday.
They have speed, fearlessness and -- as Alameda pointed out late Tuesday -- intelligence on the bases.
And they have a defense capable of delivering rally-killing plays at just the perfect moment (see Kalei Harding's beautiful throw from right field to cut down an OU runner at third base in the second inning, and Sydney Sherrill's relay throw in the seventh that nailed a Sooner runner at the plate.)
Many of us in the media, and even some fans, like to point out what this Florida State team isn't. We bring up how low the power numbers are compared to the 2018 team. We harp on how some of the veterans didn't produce in 2021's regular season like they have in the past, and how a couple of the pitchers have been inconsistent at times.
But as the Seminoles prepare to take the field here again tonight -- with one or two chances to claim the 2021 national championship -- Florida State fans should cherish what this team is.
The talent. The togetherness. The competitive spirit. The grit.
Another victory here would be incredibly sweet. Especially for it to come against that team. In this environment. In front of those fans.
It would give the Seminoles two of the last three national championships, and it would be further proof that Alameda's program deserves the respect afforded to Oklahoma, UCLA and some of the perennial powers from the Southeastern Conference.
After what these Seminoles have accomplished so far, one could argue they're champions already. And I believe that's exactly how they see themselves.
A little more hardware might only prove to others what they already know.
Contact managing editor Ira Schoffel at ira@warchant.com and follow @IraSchoffel on Twitter.
----------------------------------------------------
Talk about this story with other Florida State sports fans in the Tribal Council.
