Corey Clark: Florida State's Devyn Flaherty feeling right at home at World Series
She was in the middle of two Florida State rallies in Saturday night’s win over Washington. She had two hits, a stolen base and scored two runs in the 3-1 victory.
And she also recorded the final out at second base after shortstop Josie Muffley threw back to her after Muffley’s memorable, leaping snag in the seventh inning.
Which is kind of how Devyn Flaherty envisioned things back on March 13.
On the Seminoles’ way between games in Stillwater and Norman, the team stopped at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, the site of the Women’s College World Series, to walk around the facility.
Flaherty essentially told her teammates and coaches, “Nah, I’m good.” Because she didn’t want to step foot on that field again until they earned their way there.
In 2023, she didn’t want to take anything for granted. Not after what happened to Florida State in 2022.
“I stayed kind of off to the side,” Flaherty recalled in an interview with Warchant on Sunday. “I’m still with them. I’m just not on the field. … I kind of think (FSU head coach Lonni Alameda) thought it was funny in the moment, but going back to last year we talked a lot about how we weren’t as much process-oriented. We kind of let some things slide under the rug leadership-wise because we were winning so many games and we were so good.
“And you turn it around this year, and we’ve done everything we could to be in every single moment.”
Flaherty is hitting .327 and has a team-best .448 on-base percentage. She also leads the Seminoles with 30 stolen bases (in 31 attempts) and has committed just eight errors this season at second base. She’s a vital cog for the Florida State softball team.
But it’s not just about the production.
Above all else, Flaherty is a competitor. And a leader.
And she’s one of the heartbeats of the Florida State softball program. That’s as important, if not more so, than the steals and the hits.
“Leadership is really, really hard to do,” head coach Lonni Alameda said. “I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been in the office talking about how we handle ourselves on the field after failure. She’s a hugely competitive player. To see her thrive in these moments, not get down on frustration of outcome, but stay in it, I think the team recognizes that.
“That’s true leadership. She’s done a really good job of keeping us going.”
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On Sunday, these comments were brought up to Flaherty.
What exactly did her coach mean when she was talking about handling failure?
“Since I’ve been here, I’ve kind of been a leader on the field and a lot of people have looked to me to have the right reaction and have the team-first mentality all the time,” Flaherty. “And obviously, I’m competitive and I want to win, and do well, and want to help my team in the big situations. So, just being able to stay composed and no matter what’s going on with me be the leader my team needs me to be.
“Because when stuff hits the fan, that’s who’s going to be looked to. And how am I going to handle it? Because then it kind of bleeds onto how the rest of the team is going to handle it.”
Flaherty says she has always been competitive. It’s part of her nature. Whether she was terrorizing defenses in travel softball or on the soccer field — where she was a college recruit as well — Flaherty has always been like this.
Fiery and fierce.
But not dirty!
She knows how it might have looked, especially in slow-motion replay, when she tagged Oklahoma State’s Kiley Naomi smack in the face on a play at second base in Game 1 of the WCWS, but her intent wasn’t to hurt anyone. It was to make a play. For her team. Because that’s pretty much all Flaherty cares about.
That was the only thing on her mind.
“I didn’t think Kiley was going to slide because, in my opinion, she was just pretty out,” Flaherty said. “But Kiley is a great baserunner and a hard player, and I should have known she was going to slide. I went for her stomach, and then she slid … and it obviously ended up being more of a bang-bang play than I otherwise would have thought.
“But she was great about it. In the moment, I didn’t realize how hard I tagged her. But I went back and said, ‘Hey, sorry.’ And she said don’t even worry about it at all. We’ve played each other a lot, and I think we both know there was no ill will intended there. Just playing hard.”
Playing hard is a constant for Flaherty, of course.
She has competed in 10 WCWS games so far in her career. She’s guaranteed of playing in at least two more, starting tonight at 7 p.m. against Tennessee. And, she hopes, a few more after that as well.
And while the junior certainly wants to come back to Tallahassee with a title — that’s her No. 1 goal, her only goal really — she did say she is allowing herself to appreciate the moment. And the stage.
Because as she knows all too well, after FSU got upset in a home regional last year, there’s no guarantee it will happen again.
But unlike the trip to this same stadium in early March, Flaherty knows and appreciates that when she takes the field tonight, with a spot in the championship finals on the line, her and her teammates have earned their way there.
Which is precisely why she stayed off of it back in March.
“It’s just super cool to be here,” Flaherty said. “Because we know how hard it is. We work every single day for this. So, just for softball the sport, to see how much it’s grown, it’s just awesome.”
Talk about this story with other die-hard FSU football fans on the Tribal Council.
