Florida A&M's rocky NCAA Tournament experience will help next season

GAINESVILLE, Florida | Florida A&M’s returning players won't be dwelling on their two-and-out performance in their first NCAA baseball tournament.

Instead, it will serve as strong motivation for a team that will welcome back 25 of 29 underclassmen for the 2016 season.

“Of course the losses are going to be tough,” said junior left fielder Marlon Gibbs, an Orange Park High (Jacksonville) graduate who had two of the Rattlers’ six hits on Saturday in an 8-1 loss to Florida Atlantic in an elimination game at Alfred A. McKethan Stadium. “But we’re going to take this experience and we’re going to be a better team.”

The Owls (41-18) advanced to an elimination game on Sunday against the loser of Saturday’s late game between the University of Florida and South Florida.

FAMU (23-25) rebounded from a 19-1 loss to the Gators on Friday to battle FAU hard for eight innings. However, Esteban Puerta’s three-run homer and Ricky Santiago’s two-run double blew the game open in the top of the ninth after the Rattlers trailed 3-1.

FAU coach John McCormack said he expected no less from a team coached by Jamey Shouppe, the long-time Florida State pitching coach who has taken FAMU from a 7-45 season in 2013 to the MEAC championship and the school’s historic berth in the tournament.

“He knows what buttons to push,” McCormack said. “They played hard.”

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