Even after 26 years, Brett Groves didn’t need to see the box score to remember how it felt.
Seventeen innings.
Deep into the night.
A Florida State-Miami baseball rivalry that always carried extra weight.
“I think we finished around 2 or 2:30 in the morning,” said Groves, 47, who resides in Tampa. “It was a long game. And with Miami, with the rivalry … it already means something. But the year before, they beat us for the national championship. There was some bad blood there.”
With one out in the bottom of the 17th inning of the April 7, 2000, series opener at Howser Stadium, Groves — FSU’s starting shortstop an right-handed hitter — ripped an outside fastball down the right-field line, scoring Karl Jernigan from first and lifting the Seminoles to a 14-13 win over the Hurricanes.
The game ranks among the most dramatic at Howser in series history as the two teams renew their rivalry in a crucial three-game series in Tallahassee to end the regular-season starting at 6 p.m. May 14.
National seedings are on the line for No. 8 FSU (36-15) and unranked UM (35-15) has the chance to shake up the ACC standings. The Hurricanes haven’t won a regular-season road series at FSU since 2016.
The Seminoles are currently projected as a No. 8 national seed by USA TODAY, No. 9 by Baseball America and No. 11 by D1Baseball.
FSU holds a two-game lead over UM for the No. 4 seed in the ACC. The top four teams in the conference receive a double-bye in the ACC tournament. The Seminoles would clinch a double-bye with at least one win in the series.
“The way I see it, it’s a great opportunity to go to a top-ranked team on the road, and make a statement,” UM coach J.D. Arteaga told SI.com. “Our schedule in the ACC, we have missed some of those top teams, that’s just the way the schedule worked out, but now we have an opportunity to show what we can do.”
17 inning marathon between FSU and UM an instant classic
There have been plenty of memorable battles between FSU and UM at Howser — from Mike Martin Jr.’s 11th-inning walk-off home run in 1995, with his father, head coach Mike Martin, urging him on from the dugout, to Mike McGee’s dramatic blast in 2010.
But the 17-inning marathon in 2000 still stands apart — one of the most remarkable comebacks in Seminoles history.
Former FSU assistant coach and director of baseball operations Chip Baker still laughs when he thinks about it — and not just because of the score.
It’s everything that came with it. The fans who left the stadium. The ones who came back hours later. And a game that simply refused to end.
“I’ve got a couple, three,” Baker said of his favorite UM moments. “But that one — that one stands out.”
Top-ranked FSU trailed 9-0 with two outs in the fifth inning and still faced an 11-7 deficit with two outs in the ninth. The Seminoles rallied for four runs to force extra innings, only to see No. 12 UM push ahead again with two runs in the top of the 17th.
After nine innings, fun was just getting started
Still, it wasn’t over as FSU answered one last time.
With one out in the bottom of the 17th and trailing 13-11, Marshall McDougall singled and Ryan Barthelemy tied it with a home run over the right field screen. Jernigan followed with his only hit in nine at-bats, ripping a single up the middle, and Groves followed with his game-winning double to the opposite field.
The hit capped a game that took more than six hours to complete, featured 37 hits, seven errors and, at the time, and was the longest contest in program history for both schools. (In 2015, FSU beat UM 8-7 in 17 innings in Coral Gables, scoring the decisive run in the top of the 17th on a wild pitch).
“I knew we got down big,” Groves said. “I didn’t realize it was nine-nothing, but we just kept fighting back.”
“It was just back and forth,” Baker said. “We’d score, they’d score. We’d tie it, they’d go back ahead, we’d tie it again.”
The game dragged into the evening hours — before pitch clocks and pace-of-play rules — as two of college baseball’s premier programs refused to give in.
Even the crowd couldn’t keep up.
“Fans were leaving the ballpark,” Baker said. “Going out — then coming back. That’s how long the game was going.”
The sweetest revenge for FSU baseball
More than two decades later, some details blur. The innings run together. The moments overlap.
But the feeling remains.
“We had a great team that year,” Groves said. “And coming off losing to Miami in the national championship, we weren’t too happy about that. So it was nice to beat them.”
Jernigan, who appeared just eight times on the mound that season, earned the win by recording the final out in the 17th. McDougall, who tied the game in the bottom of the ninth with a two-run double, went 6-for-9 with four RBIs and two runs scored. But it was Groves who delivered the final blow, driving a double down the right-field line to end it.
“That was a good one,” Groves said. “Definitely one of the highlights of my career.”
And for Baker, it still serves as the ultimate measuring stick.
“At that time, we played Miami home and away every year,” he said. “That’s what you gauged your program on. It was the best rivalry in the country.”
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU baseball’s wild comeback: Inside the 17-inning thriller vs. Miami
Reporting by Jim Henry, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
