(We made a list. We checked it twice. From now until New Year’s Eve, we are counting down the top ten headlines of 2018. Today, we look at #5 on our list.)
5. Florida State takes home the National Championship
It was supposed to be “the year of the PAC-12”. All thirteen teams from the SEC reached the NCAA tournament’s field of sixty-four teams. Yet in the end, it was a team from the so-called ‘lowly’ ACC who not only drew eyeballs and headlines, but put together a particularly memorable postseason.
FSU had been a postseason stalwart and a regular appearer in Oklahoma City since the days of Lacey Waldrop near the start of the decade. The Noles had never won a national championship, however, nor was it expected that that statistic would change in 2018.
The Noles went down to the wire in the ACC tournament, scoring four runs in the bottom of the 7th inning to walk-off over Pittsburgh. The game would set the tone for the rest of the team’s postseason run.
Given a tough regional draw, with the SEC’s Auburn; ASun champion Kennesaw State; and Ohio Valley champ Jacksonville State coming into town, the Noles went 3-0, but not without more heart palpitations for FSU fans. In the Saturday winner’s bracket game against Auburn, it took a walk-off, inside-the-park home run from postseason star Carsyn Gordon to give the Noles the win in a low-scoring battle with the Tigers.
In the Super Regional, the Seminoles lost a tight game 1 to frequent postseason foe LSU, but battled back to an eleven-inning victory in game 2 that included three runs in the top of the 11th to tie the series. A 3-1 win in the Super’s rubber match gave the Noles their tickets to Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series.
Once in OKC, the Noles quickly found themselves in familiar position with their backs against the wall, thanks to an opening-round loss to UCLA. Lonni Alameda’s squad then rebounded to first beat Georgia, then #1-overall seed Oregon in consecutive elimination games and reach the WCWS semifinals.
Facing off in a rematch against UCLA in the semifinals, the Noles earned a 3-1 victory – this time on the back of a 3-run sixth inning – to again force a winner-take-all rubber match, a game that turned into an offensive slug fest with a 12-6 final score in the Seminoles’ favor.
Junior Meghan King quarterbacked the Seminoles in the best-of-three Championship Series against Washington, earning the win from the circle in both games as the Noles finally avoided a winner-take-all game and earned consecutive 1-0 and 8-3 wins to take home their first-ever softball national title.
