Florida A&M baseball got a less-than-ideal outcome in its midweek matchup versus North Florida.
On Wednesday, Feb. 18, the Rattlers (1-3) were thwarted 15-4 by the Ospreys (2-2) at Moore-Kittles on FAMU’s Tallahassee campus.
“It was a bad day. It was absolutely a disgrace to the game of baseball. The attitude was not good,” FAMU head coach Jamey Shouppe told the Tallahassee Democrat.
“You have to have the right attitude, or things like that happen that happened tonight. We were lucky it wasn’t 30-0.”
Knotted at three after the first inning, FAMU fell behind North Florida by giving up 10 runs across the second and third innings. The Ospreys scored seven runs in the third inning.
Jay Campbell took the loss on the mound for the Rattlers, pitching an inning, giving up one hit and three runs, all earned. Karson Lindsey, Clark Lincoln, Roan Tarbert, Ricardo Roman, Caden Kresak, and Cody Williams also pitched for the Rattlers on Wednesday.
FAMU’s pitchers walked twelve North Florida hitters.
“We’re going to be a whole lot better, or this is going to be a long season,” the FAMU coach said. “When you don’t throw strikes, can’t pitch and get anybody out, you can’t tell what you got.”
North Florida outhit FAMU 10-8. Justen Crews led the Rattlers with three hits and scored two runs.
“The bats were hot there in the beginning,” Crews recapped the game. “I just think as the game went on, everybody just fell asleep. I think if we can stay awake, we can be really dangerous.”
Next, FAMU travels to Vero Beach for the 18th annual Andre Dawson Classic, where it will face Southwestern Athletic Conference foes Alabama State on Friday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m., Bethune-Cookman on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 8 p.m., and Southern on Sunday, Feb. 22 at noon.
The games won’t count towards the SWAC standings.
The Andre Dawson Classic, named after the FAMU alum and National Baseball Hall of Famer, is hosted by the MLB and will take place at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex.
All games will be streamed live on MLB.com, and MLB Network will broadcast Saturday’s FAMU versus Bethune-Cookman SWAC Championship rematch.
Gerald Thomas, III is a multi-time award-winning journalist for his coverage of the Florida A&M Rattlers at the Tallahassee Democrat.
Follow his award-winning coverage on RattlerNews.com and contact him via email at GDThomas@Tallahassee.com or on the app formerly known as Twitter @3peatgee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMU baseball hindered by pitching in blowout loss vs North Florida
Reporting by Gerald Thomas III, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
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