The Florida A&M baseball team is now 1-4 after a 13-3 loss to North Florida.
In a week where the Rattlers play five games in six days, head coach Jamey Shouppe says he wants his guys to remain positive following the loss.
“We have to realize it’s early in the season and we’re playing tough competition,” Shouppe said. “But we’re not worried about who we play. We have to get better at playing the game of baseball. It doesn’t matter what the team in the other dugout does if you play like we played tonight.”
The message Shouppe gives to his team to compete is simple: he says if they do the three keys to winning a baseball game, they’ll win no matter who they play.
“Hit, pitch, and you play defense,” Shouppe said. “If you do two of the three things, you have a pretty good chance of winning the ball game. We didn’t do any tonight.”
Senior righthander Granger spoke on how he encouraged his teammates to keep a level head while on the mound.
“It’s early on in the season,” Granger said. “We’re going to have mistakes, but hopefully we build on them. Really, it’s about preparation. You practice how you play, and if you don’t practice that well or slack off results like this happen, but I don’t think we did.”
Granger is slated to pitch on Friday, February 21st, against Missouri in the Andre Dawson Classic.
It won’t be the first time Granger has gone up against an SEC lineup. When the Rattlers earned an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament in 2023 after winning the SWAC, Granger took the ball for the opening Gainesville Regional game against the University of Florida.
In six innings, Granger allowed just four hits and two home runs with one strikeout. Granger says he’s ready to throw against another SEC lineup.
“SEC schools are always fun to pitch against,” Granger said. “I only played against one and it was a good experience. It’s good to play against bigger schools to see how you stack up against them.”
The Rattlers have gotten off to a slow start, but redshirt junior Ben Kim has been solid to start the year, Kim is batting over 300 and has an OPS over 1.000.
His message to keep the team encouraged despite the early season woes would be to control what you can control and go on about your day.
“Going forward, just enjoy each day,” Kim said. “Take each at bat pitch by pitch, and try not to think ahead too much into the future.”
FAMU will travel to Gainesville on Wednesday to take on the Florida Gators. The Gators were an Omaha team last year and are undefeated following a series sweep against Air Force and a win on Tuesday over Jacksonville.