Jessie Warren ranks in the Top 10 in NCAA history for both RBIs and home runs.
Her diving catch in Game 1 of the College World Series championship series became the stuff of instant legend. She was the best player on the best team in the country in 2018.
And yet, she wasn't a first-team All-American this season. And she's not a member of the U.S. national team either. Or even on the roster for the "B" team — a collection of players who will take part in an all-star series in Japan this summer.
Florida State’s softball team might have won the national championship earlier this month, but it still has a ways to go to be seen through the same prism as teams from the perennially powerful Pac-12 and SEC.
Case in point: The Seminoles became just the second team in college softball history to win a national championship without a first-team All-American (Warren and pitcher Kylee Hanson were on the second team).
They also became the first team since 2012 to win the College World Series and not receive all 32 first-place votes in the final NFCA poll - Washington and Oregon each received a single vote (two teams that the Seminoles beat in Oklahoma City, it should be noted).
"Well, someone doesn't like us," FSU head coach Lonni Alameda joked. "It's all right. You can't get worried about that stuff, right? And I think that's what's been good about us. We just stay grounded and do what we do. And we've been doing it for 10 years. It's just so cool that people got to see and witness what we're all about - having fun, enjoying the game.
"And we opened some doors and some minds, but it will still take some time in the ACC. That's OK. We opened it and there's a belief that it can be done. We'll just keep trucking along."
Alameda does, in fact, get to have the last laugh as her team overcame extreme odds - after losing both the first game of the Super Regional and the WCWS - to win the national title.
But there's still work to be done in the perception of just how elite the Florida State program is. And almost all of that stems from the relative weakness of the ACC.
