TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- The Florida A&M baseball team, which is coming off its' first MEAC Baseball Championship since 1994, continues to work through its' fall practice schedule as the Rattlers are in the second week of practice that will conclude at the end of October. FAMU will wrap up fall practice with five games against junior college opponents over the final two weeks of October, in Tallahassee.
"We broke the fall up into two segments," said head coach Jamey Shouppe. "The first segment will be a three week segement in which we go six days a week to get our 20 hours a week in. We do that to get our system in place and because it mirrors what we'll do when we come back in January to get ready for our 2016 season. When we come back, we'll have six weeks to prepare for our first game. We will play five games our last three weeks of our fall."
Florida A&M will face Darton College (Oct. 13), Chipola State College (Oct. 15), Gulf Coast State College (Oct. 19), and NW Florida State College (Oct. 21) all at Moore-Kittles Field before wrapping up the fall schedule at Tallahassee Community College on October 27. All games are scheduled for a 5:00 PM first pitch.
OCT
13 Tues Darton College (JC) Tallahassee, FL 5:00 pm
15 Thurs Chipola State College (JC) Tallahassee, FL 5:00 pm
19 Mon Gulf Coast State College (JC) Tallahassee, FL 5:00 pm
21 Wed NW Florida State College (JC) Tallahassee, FL 5:00 pm
27 Tues at Tallahassee Community College (JC) Tallahassee, FL 5:00 pm
FAMU returns 21 players, including nine pitchers, from a 2015 team that was a part of a historic season that saw the Rattlers advance to the programs first-ever NCAA Regional as Florida A&M reached the Gainesville Regional.
"Been impressed with the talent that's there, Shouppe continued." "There's very good competition behind the plate between Brian Davis and Jacky Miles, Jr., a transfer from Chipola. We feel like offensively we're going to be better. At first base, we brought in a fifth year transfer from Jacksonville University in Dylan Dillard, who we think is going to be a good asset to us offensively. We've just been very pleased so far in how the fall has gone."
Florida A&M’s roster will have 13 newcomers, including six freshmen, five junior college transfers and one collegiate transfer.
Of those 13 newcomers, five are additions to the pitching staff that only lost one senior from 2015. Last year's staff posted the first-ever sub-5.00 team ERA in program history.
"We've got a lot of new guys in the system and the guys returning have done a good job of helping them out and guiding them to the things that we do on a consistent basis," said pitching coach Bryan Henry. "The scrimmages have been great so far and has given me a chance to learn their stuff. It's also a chance to see what pitches they like to throw in certain situations and how hitters react to them. The best part about it is the competition we have going on between the pitching staff. It's a little deeper than it was last year with us only losing one senior and we brought in a few guys. It's no secret that there's some great competition for those innings and it will bring out the best in everybody. We've got some guys that can throw secondary pitches for strikes and anytime you can throw an off-speed pitch in a fast ball count, you're going to have success. We've got multiple guys who know how to pitch and when you combine that with the guys coming back from last year, and returning your whole weekend rotation, that's always a good thing. The depth is there we may not have had last year."
Shouppe also announced the 2016 Florida A&M baseball schedule as the Rattlers will see 16 games against in-state opponents. On top of the home MEAC schedule, FAMU will host games against Marshall, Western Michigan, Toledo, Florida Gulf Coast, North Florida, Jacksonville, Alabama State and Mercer. Florida A&M also has a mid-week game at Auburn (Feb. 24) and a three-game weekend series at Miami (April 29-May 1) for a very strong 51-game schedule.
Under head coach Jamey Shouppe the Rattlers have won 29 regular season games against MEAC opponents (29-19), which is the most conference wins over any two-year period in program history.
The 2016 season will open on Friday, February 19 against Marshall for a three-game series at Moore-Kittles Field.
As always, fans can follow Rattler Baseball on Twitter @FAMUAthletics and the 2016 baseball schedule is now available on www.FAMUAthletics.com.
COURTESY FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION
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