TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Jake Mangum saw the changeup grip in Drew Parrish’s glove as he shuffled away from second base, biting the temptation to scream that fact at Elijah MacNamee. MacNamee didn’t need the hint: having just watched a 0-2 fastball miss the strike zone, he expected offspeed was on its way.
The changeup came low and away. The same pitch that kept Mississippi State bats silent for eight innings was leaving Mike Martin Field, bound at a high rate of speed for the scoreboard bearing the name of the Florida State coach who helplessly watched.
With MacNamee’s blast to left field, a tumultuous season added its most chaotic chapter and evaded its end. The 3-2 win knocked hosting Florida State (43-19) out of the Tallahassee Regional and kept MSU (32-26) in it in a way only a team with 18 comeback wins can find normal.
“This team’s an emotional roller coaster,” center fielder Jake Mangum said.
Saturday’s ride was longer than most — thanks to a 150-minute weather delay.
The threat of lightning near Dick Howser Stadium made MSU wait to capitalize on one of its best threats to pounce on the Seminoles. Relief extraordinaire Riley Self had two hitless innings under his belt and was toeing the rubber for a third; if he kept the two-run deficit in tact, the top of MSU’s lineup was due up with three outs to erase it. Before Self could start the ninth, players were sent back to the dugout, forced to reckon with their potential demise all of six outs away.
They did so in different ways. Second baseman Hunter Stovall spent some time in the stands, snacking on M&M’s and telling his father Eric he was going to walk the game off; when he wasn’t there, he was in the weight room with teammates, watching the movie Grown Ups and listening to a yodeling remix players affectionately named the Rally Yodel after sweeping Florida.
The delay met its end just before 5 p.m. local time, when MacNamee had an odd sensation overcome him. He felt something special coming, but knew the opportunity to make it happen could come to anyone.
Opportunity had come MacNamee’s way a couple of times Saturday with mixed results in tow. He created the final out of the bottom of the fifth inning when he took off from second base on a Luke Alexander line drive that was caught by the right fielder. He retreated to the dugout in apologetic fashion, finding a group of teammates who found no apology necessary, thinking they would have done the same thing in his shoes.
MacNamee delivered that apology anyway at the right field wall in the next half-inning. A hard-hit ball bound for the break between the padded wall and chain link fence in right field was almost certain for a bad bounce; MacNamee was in no good posture to chase it, backpedaling with his back facing the wall.
The catch at the wall was a comforting moment for him — more than the vengeance for his prior mistake, more than the gesture of pitcher Ethan Small waiting to enter the dugout with him after thanking him for the play. It helped MacNamee settle into his surroundings, as the short right field fence was an adjustment for him.
His next adjustment was his best. The changeup from Parrish was too good for MSU hitters for the entire day before it, but MacNamee knew it was coming and was determined to make this one different.
“That pitch was there all day, changeup,” MacNamee said. “I told myself to scoot up in the box and see it all the way.
“When he threw it, you knew: ‘Oh my gosh, that’s the pitch.'”
It was more than a pitch that likely solidified MacNamee’s place in MSU baseball folklore forever. He saw it as a pitch that continued the career of fifth-year senior Jacob Billingsley, a swing that guaranteed Mangum one more game in a MSU uniform. For that, Mangum found MacNamee in the celebration, as it drifted from home plate to the outfield, for an embrace and a simple message: “Thank you, Mac. Thank you.”
MacNamee wasn’t having it.
“No, there’s no thank you,” MacNamee told The Dispatch. “We’re not done.”
MacNamee was still soaking that fact in hours after the fact, standing in the shadow of the scoreboard he just bounced a home run off of. Beyond the left field wall he cleared, fans entering the stadium for the ensuing game between Oklahoma and Samford congratulated him for his feat; a smile took over his face as he accepted a handshake from, “Mr. Jim,” the voice of the Bulldogs, Jim Ellis.
The well-wishers gone and meaning of the day well sunk in, MacNamee adjusted the bag over his shoulder and slid into a blue car, Mangum to his left in the back seat and Henderson in the seat in front of him.
Thanks to MacNamee, the other two live to play another day.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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