On June 22, 2006, Miguel Cabrera stepped to the plate for the Marlins in the 10th inning of a 5-5 game against the Orioles at Camden Yards. With the go-ahead run at second base, Baltimore's plan was to walk the fearsome slugger intentionally.
Cabrera, though, had other ideas. He swung at the first intended ball and lined it to center field for a go-ahead single and the Marlins eventually won the game, 8-5.
Miggy pulled off the stunning move in a regular season game. But what if it had happened in the World Series?
On Wednesday night in Oklahoma City, that's exactly what happened in the sixth inning of Game 1 of the Women's College World Series Finals between Texas and Texas Tech.
Longhorns catcher Reese Atwood was in the process of being intentionally walked by Texas Tech superstar pitcher NiJaree Canady with the tying and go-ahead runners at second and third with two outs.
On the 3-0 pitch, Canady left what she thought would be her fourth intentional ball a little too close to the plate, and Atwood hit it into left field for a two-run single that turned a 1-0 Red Raiders lead into a 2-1 advantage for the Longhorns, who went on to win by that score and take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.
"It's a close game, you've got to take risks," Atwood told ESPN after the win. "The first pitch, I thought I could've hit, and that next one, she kind of slowed down on it, so I took my chance and I got it."
On the ESPN telecast, color analyst Jessica Mendoza, much like everyone else who witnessed the moment, couldn't believe what she had just watched.
Mendoza described it as "one of the craziest turn of events we've seen here in OKC."
It wasn't the first crazy moment in the game involving Atwood, though. The 1-0 Texas Tech lead came as a result of a Mihyia Davis RBI single in the fifth inning that followed a controversial call at second base. With two outs in the frame, Logan Halleman attempted a steal of second. Atwood threw a strike to shortstop Leighann Goode and, initially, it appeared that Halleman was out.
But upon a Texas Tech challenge, the umpires ruled that Goode had obstructed Halleman as she tried to slide into second. Halleman then came around to score on Davis' single.
The controversial call became moot, though, when Atwood swung at what was supposed to be an intentional ball four in the bottom of the sixth.
"This team is so resilient," Atwood said of how the Longhorns regrouped to win despite the obstruction call. "We just knew it took one hit."
That one hit wasn't exactly conventional, but it was one of the biggest hits in the career of the 2024 Softball America National Player of the Year.
It was also her first hit of this year's WCWS.
Despite being 0-for-10 in the tournament entering Game 1 of the championship series on Wednesday, Atwood wasn't panicking. Quite the contrary, in fact.
"I knew all week that the hit was finally gonna land at some point," she said. "I felt confident."
That hit did land, and it happened to be the one that lifted Texas to within one victory of the WCWS title, something the Longhorns have been coveting all the more after losing in last year's championship series to rival Oklahoma.
"This university has never won a national championship in softball," Atwood said. "It would be great to bring it home to Austin."