As the regular season reaches homestretch, SWAC East leaders FAMU baseball has gauge of team

Florida A&M baseball has played nearly 50 games in its regular season.

That’s more than enough for Rattlers head coach Jamey Shouppe to measure where his team stands a little over two weeks away from the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament.

FAMU is 23-23 overall record with an 18-6 mark in SWAC play. It leads the East division and currently in play to own a one seed in the league’s tournament, where it will defend its conference title at Georgia Tech’s Russ Chandler Stadium in Atlanta starting on May 22.

The Rattlers hosted the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats on Moore-Kittles Field last weekend. B-CU won the three-game series 2-1 and is the only team to defeat FAMU in eight SWAC series this season.

“We got a good ballclub. Everybody knows,” Shouppe said after the FAMU-B-CU series.

“We worry about us. We don’t worry about the other team. But, to win a championship, we’ll probably have to beat Bethune-Cookman. So, we better figure it out now and start preparing ourselves for it.”

FAMU has one of the most better batting lineups in the SWAC.

However, Shouppe wasn’t pleased with the offensive “approach” against B-CU. He said his team tried to “do too much” and “get what they want, instead of getting what they (B-CU) were trying to give us.”

For the weekend, B-CU outhit FAMU 33-20.

One of the Rattlers’ bright spots, batting-wise, was Jalen Niles notching his first home run of the season, trimming his team’s Sunday deficit in their comeback efforts.

“We’ve gone through some ups and downs throughout the season,” Niles said. “We’re trying to figure out how to string together multiple good at-bats rather than just going for the long ball. We’re still swinging the bat pretty well, but we want to keep improving.

“We’re trying to cover everything, so when we get to the tournament, there’s no flaw in our game.”

Next for the Rattlers is a trip to Duval County to take on the North Florida Ospreys (20-24) on Tuesday at 4 p.m. FAMU and UNF last met on March 12, when the Ospreys prevailed 11-8.

It’ll be FAMU’s final midweek and non-conference game of the regular season.

Shouppe will use the FAMU-UNF game to allow his reserve players to get in-game reps, which could assist the Rattlers in knowing who their next men up are for the upcoming SWAC Tournament.

He looks forward to relief pitcher Tre Simmons’ return, who is recovering from a shoulder injury. Simmons hasn’t appeared in a game since March 16 against Alabama A&M.

After UNF, FAMU travels to Alabama State (22-22, 13-9 SWAC) for a three-game SWAC series.

“We’re going to get some guys work who haven’t gotten work,” Shouppe said. “Everything we do is to get ready for the weekend. We have to do the things that have made us successful.”

Florida A&M at North Florida Game Information

When: Tuesday, May 7 at 4 p.m.

Where: Dusty Rhodes Field at Harmon Stadium

Gerald Thomas, III covers Florida A&M University Athletics for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at gdthomas@tallahassee.com or on the app formerly known as Twitter @3peatgee.

No one covers the Rattlers like the Tallahassee Democrat. Subscribe using the link at the top of the page and never miss a moment.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMU Baseball: Rattlers have gauge of who team is, plays UNF Tuesday