Last One Standing

3- number of times FSU has played Miami this season. Today will be the fourth.

1- the number of times FSU has beaten Miami.

While the numbers above don't make FSU's odds for a win today look too good, the situation is perhaps what this team has become used to and where they have learned to play their best. With the fear of losing and being sent home right on the tip of their tongue, freshman Tyler Holt said: "Thats kind of what this team has been built on - fighting back."

The Noles lost the first game of the Regionals to Bucknell. After a moment of "What the hell just happened?" FSU pulled it together and came back to beat Florida, Bucknell and Tulane (twice) to advance. Over those four games the Noles put up 74 runs (the other teams combined came up with 35).  

Advance to the Super Regional they did only to turn around and lose the first game (yet again) creating the same story but with a different team. This time victory belonged to Wichita State after the Noles went down 10-7. And yet it when it mattered most, their backs pushed against the wall, somehow this team managed to do it again and win the next two.

Finally, after eight years, a return to the College World Series. A place Mike Martin has visited 13 times in his career but a title he's never won. A game against Stanford and the story repeats, a first game loss. Not of course without some notable records, the third-longest nine-inning game in CWS history and a tied record by Stanford for most runs scored in an inning (11 in a brutal ninth). Seven other teams share that record. Unless you are a Stanford fan, watching that inning sucked. It went on forever and got worse with each batter (or error).

And so it all starts over again. FSU down, facing elimination, going against not only an in-state rival, but a team they have only been able to beat once this season and a favorite by many to win it all, the No. 1 team in the nation.

And I wonder, can they do it again? Can this team, with the best offense in college baseball, manage to win another one and hold off Miami? Or has luck run its course? Which Florida team will be the last one standing?

I've got my fingers crossed that the numbers above read like this at the end of the day:

4- number of times FSU has played Miami.

2- number of times FSU has beaten Miami.