Dominic Listi did not recognize the call from the 734 area-code.

The weeks leading up to the mystery phone call last June had been a whirlwind for the Crystal Lake, Ill., native. On June 2, Listi faced off against Kentucky in the championship of the Lexington Regional as an outfielder for the Indiana State Sycamores.

After falling to Kentucky, the No. 2 national seed, the Sycamores season abruptly came to a close.

Following elimination, as Listi explained during Clemson’s Annual Preseason Baseball Banquet earlier this month, he wondered if it was time for his baseball career to come to a close as well. After all, he already achieved more than he thought possible.

Five years prior to dicing up pitchers in the Lexington Regional, Listi did not even know if college baseball would be a part of his future.

Ranked as the 141st best baseball player in the state of Illinois, Listi did not receive a single Division I offer. Where most would have reminisced on the joys of high school baseball and called it quits, Listi knew he had more to give, a recurring theme in his career.

The lefty signed with Division III’s North Central College and over the course of his four-year career, transformed himself into a production giant.

In his last season at North Central, Listi led Division III in triples, recorded a 72-game on-base streak, and led his team in nearly every metric that sport statisticians measure.

After this success, he again considered, “Is it time to be done?”

His head coach at North Central certainly thought so. The coach candidly told Listi that at the Division I level, he would, at best, be a .200 hitter on the worst possible team. 

Luckily, Listi disagreed.

He furiously emailed every mid-major program in the country, campaigning for a chance to earn a walk-on position. He spent his summer tearing through return emails that expressed rejection and mild interest. But mostly, he did not hear back.

Finally, he heard back from Indiana State head coach Mitch Hannahs, who offered Listi a chance to play his fifth year as a walk-on. 

In his one year with the Sycamores, Listi recorded 70 hits, 31 RBIs, and had a .324 average, almost doubling his former coach’s damning prediction. After the Kentucky loss, he began telling his close friends and family that he was done with baseball. This was it. 

But slowly and surely, a familiar voice, or maybe even the voice of his younger self, creeped back in his head with a question, “If I could see myself from the eyes of a stranger, would I admire who I am?”

This question stirred in his head as he entered the transfer portal once more, this time without compulsive emailing.

He was watching Clemson take on Florida in the Clemson Super Regional at the time. As Clemson head coach Erik Bakich was thrown out in the last inning while taking up for his players, Listi thought, “That’s a guy I’d love to lay it on the line for.”

Maybe Bakich and the Tigers were the kind of program that could make a younger Listi proud, a chance to achieve his lifelong dream, and gain the admiration of strangers. But of course, it was a long shot- at least until he received a phone call from an unknown number on that night last June.

Listi picked up the phone, and on the other end was Erik Bakich, who still had a Michigan phone number from his days as Michigan’s head coach. Immediately, he was struck by the Clemson’s coach’s joy.

“Coach Bakich had a contagious energy, the kind that you just don’t hear, you feel it,” Listi said.

By the time Listi hung up the phone and resumed watching the NBA Playoffs, he was committed to Clemson, a school and city he had never visited in a state hundreds of miles from home. 

In the seven months since Listi decided to postpone his retirement and move south for the winter, he has made himself quite at home under the lights of Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

Throughout the first four games of Clemson’s season, Listi leads the Tigers with a .500 batting average, .632 on-base percentage and eight RBIs. He has also been crucial to the Tigers’ defense, recording multiple inning-ending diving catches in left field.

The sky seems to be the limit for Listi in a Clemson uniform. Thanks to lots of experience looking forward, he is now focused on only the present.

“At some point, we’ve all wanted to be where we are right now,” Listi said. “If we don’t appreciate it right now, will your future feel any differently?”

“Don’t chase an endpoint, chase the pursuit,” he continued.

Sometimes, chasing the pursuit may just help you end up receiving the call from an unknown number that you have been dreaming about for years.

–photo by Jim Cowsert / Imagn Images