Let’s set the scene.
Bottom of the 12^th inning, in a Super Regional elimination game, Devin Fontenot steps on the worn pitching rubber in Alex Box Stadium. The sophomore has been battling each pitch against the Florida State Seminoles to keep his team’s diminishing hopes of a trip to the College World Series. So far, he has been nothing short of spectacular for every one of the 11,713 purple and gold faithful who were fortunate enough to see Fontenot pitch six innings without allowing a hit. But finally, a Seminole runner has reached scoring position, after a base hit and a wild pitch. Drew Mendoza, Florida State’s best hitter, is at the plate, strapping up his batting gloves and repositioning himself for a chance to send his team to Omaha.
Freshman year prepared Fontenot for this. 2018 LSU struggled with growing pains throughout the season. They would end up as a 2 seed in the NCAA tournament for the first team since 2011, matched up with a vaunted and vengeful Oregon State in Corvallis. Fontenot posted a rough 6.18 ERA on the campaign.
But the development time paid off. He jumped to a 3.71 ERA in 51 IP, posted 54 strikeouts, and held opponents to an insane .180 batting average in this sophomore campaign. He was ready enough.
What happened next could have defined Fontenot’s legacy at LSU. He could get out of this jam and keep his team in the game long enough to generate some runs to survive and advance. He could also give up a base hit that would effectively put his outfielders in a position to make a tough throw to catch the runner at 2^nd, and he would be brandished in highlight reels of game-winning college baseball moments as the LSU guy who gave up the hit.
The latter scenario transpired. Mendoza stroked a beautiful swing to right field over second baseman Brandt Broussard, where Antoine Duplantis was unable to get any reasonable throw off. The unforgettable, gutsy performance by Fontenot was quickly tarnished by the painful memory of the raucous mass of beige jerseys celebrating a walk off win to escape Baton Rouge. Fontenot crouched down, looked down at his glove, and walked off the field, head down in dejection with his teammates.
But Fontenot had a choice. The colossal moment and devastating outcome could have left him as a fraction of the pitcher he had worked so hard to become. He could have taken a downward turn after pitching at a peak performance level for six innings and it still not being enough to win. He could have let that brief instant define him.
In a way, it did end up identifying him, but only to transform Fontenot into one of the best relief pitchers on the college circuit. His takeway?
Leave everything on the field. Everything.
“That was definitely a turning point for me,” Fontenot said, looking back on the game. “Just to go out there and leave it all on the line every game. Ever since that game, I just made it a point to not hold back anything. You’ve got to give it your all every game, because sometimes I had to face some challenges and I was trying to figure out why I wasn’t pitching as great as I knew I could, but it was because I was holding back a little bit.”
If that message didn’t hit home after the loss, it certainly was nailed in when his junior year was cancelled just 17 games into the season. COVID-19 represented another obstacle in overcoming adversity. Going even further, Fontenot was contacted by an MLB team about possibly being drafted late in the abbreviated draft this year. Fontenot was thrilled to see his work translate into a tangible result: an opportunity to get into a big-league farm system. However, the team elected to draft someone else and left Devin off to determine what his next choice would be.
But at this point, it was easy. This was just another bump in the road to success. If the club didn’t want him, fine. He would happily go back to a place where he’s always felt welcomed in LSU.
“Whenever they chose somebody else, it was obvious to me that I wanted to go back to school,” Fontenot said. “You have a chip on your shoulder, you want to come back and you want to accomplish more things.”
These experiences formed a man. Fontenot now is much more than a pitcher. He is the epitome of a person with a clear sense of who he is and why he can keep coming back stronger.
“The focus that it takes to come each and every day and know that it’s a new day and you’re going to have something new to face,” he remarked on how to face challenges. “It’s never going to be the same thing, so I’m just trying to do my best to help the team and not worrying about what the future holds. Just living in the moment.”
Now, the metamorphosis has been complete. Fontenot is a first team All-American and All-SEC pitcher, with a 95-mph gunslinger of a fastball and a winding snake of a slider from the Woodlands, TX native. With hard work and experience come maturity, and maturity often brings command for pitchers. In his seven appearances last year, he posted a .90 ERA in 10.0 IP, with just a .90 WHIP, 17 strikeouts, and four saves. Everyone has been singing Fontenot’s praises about the pitcher and man he has become.
“The biggest change I see in Devin was his mentality change,” catcher Alex Milazzo said. “I feel like now when he gets on the mound, he knows he’s the guy who knows he’s got to go up there and throw strikes.”
“I can definitely see a progression from freshman year to now,” fellow pitcher AJ Labas said. “I lived with him for the past two years. Seeing him grow over the past two years, it was really good to see him grow and mature and become the person he is today.”
“It’s amazing that a kid that is a preseason All-American and has done the things that Devin has done can seem to be underrated by most people,” head coach Paul Mainieri said. “He has such a better understanding of what he is as a pitcher and what (pitching coach) Alan (Dunn) and I expect out of him.”
Mainieri quickly silenced any notion that it would be someone else pitching with the game on the line in those innings just like that fateful night against Florida State.
“He’s our closer,” he said. “There’s no question about that.”
When the moment comes, the veteran coach knows what he sees. In Fontenot, he sees a hungry but focused, fiery but controlled competitor to take the ball from him in winning time, ready to imprint his legacy as the LSU pitcher who never backed down, who kept getting back up when the world knocked him off his feet, and who threw as hard as he could every single pitch.